Week 10 - Post 1: Apple Patent Invalidated

        The first article I read for this week detailed the ongoing patent war regarding Apple and their "slide-to-unlock" patent.  Essentially, Samsung and Motorola Mobility saw a win in Germany's federal patent court yesterday after the court deemed all claims on Apple's "slide-to-unlock" patent are invalid, and none of the 14 amendments that Apple proposed could restore the patent either.  While Apple intends to appeal this decision it seems that they will likely meet with limited success , because Apple's "slide-to-unlock" does not cover all slide-to-unlock mechanisms, and many mobile device companies have found their way around Apple's design.  Apparently, software like Apple's is not a patentable object if it does not solve, "a technical problem by technical means."   However, Apple's "slide-to-unlock" may have more ground in the U.S. as the courts here are not as strict as in Europe.
     

        Interestingly, the Munich I Regional Court granted Apple a permanent but appealable injunction against Samsung on two of its slide-to-unlock mechanisms.  What does this say about the court system in Germany?  The federal court was against appealing one of Apple's claims yet a regional court upheld what appear to be the same claims in a different suit.  While I appreciate the fact that Europe does not seem to grant patent assertions as easily as is done in the United States, if a court found Apple to have won their case in a regional court, it seems unreasonable that the federal court should go against the same ruling.  It's not that Apple needs to win more patent assertions, but the discrepancy in rulings in Germany, and even throughout the world regarding mobile device patents seems to be too convoluted and highly complex.  However one good thing I can say about the federal court's ruling was that three of the five judges ruling had engineering backgrounds, so perhaps the Munich court was incorrect in their ruling.  Regardless, Germany and the rest of the world still need - as we have seen time and time again - a more efficient system for patent filing.

Link: http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/apples-slide-to-unlock-patent.html