[talmand]

Generally I dislike the idea of software patents but this is a tough one. Mainly because it was a damn good idea and should be treated as such. I can see maybe treating it as a design patent kind of thing like Apple is pursuing against Samsung in Europe. If there's any debate it would be whether the task warranted a patent in the first place since how else would you unlock a phone by interacting with the touch screen if not by a gesture of some sort?

Did any touch screen devices even lock/unlock in the first place before the iPhone? If so, how did you unlock them? Physical button maybe?

From my quick glance it seems to specifically cover the type of unlocking gesture and design introduced with the iPhone so it may not cover all unlocking actions in the market.

[markkat]

But it wasn't introduced with the iPhone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T... 4 minutes in.

[talmand]

That's not quite the same thing. Apple's patent covers a basic UI to go with the left-to-right gesture. In that video I see no UI to assist the user in determining how to unlock the phone, it's only the gesture which is only a small part of the patent.