HTC kills Apple’s slide to unlock patent claim

Submitted by Mike on Wed, 07/04/2012

Apple had claimed that HTC had infringed on the Slide to unlock patent (U.S. Patent No. 8,095,879), but HTC quoted a Swedish NeoNode made phone called the N1 that has its own slide to unlock that was released in 2004.

NeoNode has licensed its patents to Sony and Amazon for use in their reader devices. NeoNode has a strong case to take Apple for stealing patented technologies.

One of HTC’s responses to court’s ruling was "We remain disappointed that Apple continues to favour competition in the courtroom over competition in the marketplace,"

Given the particulars in the case, hopefully Apple will get on with making devices and move forward dropping all cases. While Apple is at it, they should give a public apology and give royalties to NeoNode for ripping their Patent from 2004.