Floyd J today struck a significant blow in the ongoing smartphone patent wars. Delivering judgment in the chancery division of the High Court today, it was held that a number of patents held by Apple in relation to the iPhone were invalid.
Of the four patents that were in issue, one in particular is interesting. Apple's 'slide to unlock' mechanism, as used on the iPhone, has been patented since 2008. It is a signature of the device and is the touchscreen's answer to the menu > * input of Nokia fame.
Similar features exist on a range of other smartphones, notably HTC's Desire, Wildfire etc. These phones, and a plethora of others, feature HTC's 'arc unlock' feature. Like Apple's 'slide to unlock', the arc unlock involves sliding a finger along a predefined path on-screen.
Apple alleged that this constitutes an infringement of its patent. By contrast, HTC claimed that the Apple patent was invalid. In what could prove to be a hugely important decision, it was found that the patent was in fact invalid.
The reasoning behind the court's decision was that the patent fell at the hurdle of the inventive step. It is a requirement of this step that an invention be 'non-obvious' and, in light of previous inventions, the court held that this requirement was not fulfilled. The court pointed to the Neonode N1 as a pre-existing invention which, since 2004, featured a similar slide to unlock mechanism. The addition of visual feedback to this process was held to be "obvious" and, accordingly, the patent was invalid.
This decision is certainly significant. While the smartphone patent wars will undoubtedly rage on, HTC will consider this a key battle to have won.
