Apple loses German patent protection for slide-to-unlock

Apple has lost its patent protection in Germany for "slide to unlock," one of the most familiar features of its iPhonesand iPads, with a court ruling that it was not a solution tosomething that had previously been a technical problem, dpa reported.The decision, which was first reported Friday, was handed down theprevious day by the Federal Patent Court in Munich. It invalidatedall of Apple's claims for the method of unlocking the screensaver bpushing a slider-button across the screen to the right, which habeen part of the iPhone since it first arrived on the market in 2007.Judges ruled that "unlocking a device by performing gestures on anunlock image" was unpatentable as granted, and that none of the 14amendments proposed by Apple could salvage the patent.Apple has been at war with other companies over the web ofworldwide patents that make it difficult for each maker ofsmart-phones and tablet computers to copy one another's interfaces.