This week I told you that Apple patented the slide to unlock system through which we can unlock our iDevices. The system was introduced in 2007 together with the first iPhone terminal, but only this year did Apple manage to patent it. For the prime minister of Taiwan this patent is cause for concern because some manufacturers of Android terminals would violate it through the products they launched on the market. When Apple launched this system, Android didn't even exist and the big terminal manufacturers didn't use the system to unlock devices, so it was something innovative that could be patented.
Taipei, Oct. 27 (CNA) Premier Wu Den-yih directed relevant government agencies Thursday to assess the possible impact on local companies of Apple Inc.'s latest success in winning the "Slide-to-Unlock" patent. The directive came two days after the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted the US-based consumer electronics giant a patent on its iconic handset's unlocking mechanism — the now famous Slide-to-Unlock. Slide to Unlock was one of the features that made Apple's first handset — the iPhone — popular when it was released in 2007 and a lot of smartphone platforms such as Android and Windows Phone have since adopted the concept
Apple tries to protect its inventions, the normal thing by the way, but this patent could become the nightmare of some Android terminal manufacturers. If the slide to unlock system is used in Android terminals, then those manufacturers will have to modify the system or try to license the technology from Apple, otherwise they will be forced to stop selling their own products if Apple wins this right in a court of law. Apple will probably use this new "weapon" in the war against Android terminal manufacturers and the Taiwanese government seems interested in helping its companies.
