Swipe-to-unlock is an obvious transfer of a well-known physical concept (sliding the keyboard to unlock, as many Nokia phones had) to the touch screen.
It's a great example of another big problem with software patents - the idea that adding "... on a computer" makes it somehow brand new.
Simple sollution:
Only grant patents on real sollutions.
If you can solve the same problem in another way it is a independent work.
Do we realy want a world with 1 browser 1 OS and 1 pragramming alnguage?
Comments
Swipe-to-unlock is an obvious transfer of a well-known physical concept (sliding the keyboard to unlock, as many Nokia phones had) to the touch screen.
It's a great example of another big problem with software patents - the idea that adding "... on a computer" makes it somehow brand new.
Simple sollution: Only grant patents on real sollutions. If you can solve the same problem in another way it is a independent work. Do we realy want a world with 1 browser 1 OS and 1 pragramming alnguage?
Patents on real solutions are called "copyright".