Apple has been going after Samsung and other smartphone manufacturers with one lawsuit after another. This time, they claim the electronics manufacturer is infringing on their ‘slide-to-unlock’ patent.
Now, patent infringement lawsuits are nothing new to the World of smartphones and tablets. Debates and patent cases have been heating up the last several years and the tech giant is one of the companies that’s spearheading the movement.
Steve Jobs once was quoted saying “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong” in regards to Android and “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”
It seems that the company may be trying to live up to his words.
“In Apple’s first suit that directly names Samsung’s Android-based smartphone, the company claims the Galaxy Nexus infringes on the “slide-to-unlock” feature first introduced with the original iPhone in 2007 and subsequently patentedwith the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in October 2011. In 2006 the company also obtained a “utility model” registration for the feature in Germany.”
“FOSS Patent’s Florian Mueller describes a “utility model” as a limited fast-track patent that companies are allowed to file for alongside traditional patents, and Apple has done both for the “slide-to-unlock” in Germany.”
At the end of the day, it’s a good thing that Samsung is selling a lot of product so they can afford all these lawsuits.
Do you think Apple is warranted with all these patent infringement lawsuits?
