Samsung's Never-Ending Battle With Apple Over 'Slide to Unlock' May be Headed to Supreme Court - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Samsung's Never-Ending Battle With Apple Over 'Slide to Unlock' May be Headed to Supreme Court

by

slie to unlockA longstanding lawsuit between Apple and Samsung over "Slide to Unlock" may be headed to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Samsung has until March 29 to file a petition for a writ of certiorari, aka a request for Supreme Court review, per FOSS Patents.

If it accepts the case, the Supreme Court will review the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision to reinstate Apple's $119.6 million award last October.

Apple successfully argued that Samsung copied its patents related to slide to unlock, autocorrect, and phone number detection.

The lawsuit is so old that Apple does not even use "Slide to Unlock" anymore. Unlocking an iPhone on iOS 10 requires using Touch ID or pressing down on the Home button, which first brings up the passcode screen if you have one enabled. Swiping to the right now brings up a collection of Lock screen widgets.

This case is not to be confused with another 2011 lawsuit in which Apple accused Samsung of copying the iPhone's design with its own Galaxy-branded smartphones. That larger case made it all the way to the Supreme Court and is now headed back to the same San Jose district court where it began for a possible damages retrial.

Top Rated Comments

123 months ago
I really miss slide-to-unlock. I still have to actively think about pressing the button after doing the Touch ID, while slide-to-unlock seemed completely intuitive.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
smacrumon Avatar
123 months ago
I really miss slide to unlock!!!
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
123 months ago
Oh, for the love. Somebody just pay somebody and let's move on.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
123 months ago
Good!!!! Then they can see how Apple BLATANTLY stole the idea from Neonode that had it years before Apple and we can all move on. I thought this patent was going to be made void from Apple because of the Neonode prior art?

Watch from 4 minutes:



And this phone was out about 2 YEARS before the first iPhone.. yet Apple kept banging on about their patent.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
123 months ago
I really miss slide-to-unlock. I still have to actively think about pressing the button after doing the Touch ID, while slide-to-unlock seemed completely intuitive.
Same here. Half the time, I invoke Apple Pay instead, or, if I want to look at my notifications screen, I wind up unlocking it because I left my finger on too long or too hard or whatever.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rocketman Avatar
123 months ago
The new UI makes me press the home button twice as often. Steve's buddy Scott Forstall may have been a similar ** as Steve but his UI did rock.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

samsung galaxy card

Samsung Debuts Galaxy Card With 5% Cash Back to Take On Apple Card

Monday July 20, 2026 4:39 pm PDT by
Samsung today announced the launch of its first credit card in the United States, debuting the Samsung Galaxy Card in partnership with Barclays. The Samsung Galaxy Card works as a standard Visa card and offers special financing options for Samsung Galaxy devices purchased through Samsung. Apple Card has a similar financing option for Apple devices. There is no annual fee for the Samsung...
samsung galaxy zfold8

Hands-On With Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold8, the Closest Thing Yet to a Foldable iPhone

Wednesday July 22, 2026 6:01 am PDT by
Samsung today debuted its latest foldable devices, including the Galaxy Z Flip8, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, and the new Galaxy Z Fold8, which has a design similar to what we're expecting from the foldable iPhone coming this September. We were able to take a look at the new Samsung foldables ahead of launch. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The Galaxy ZFold 8 Ultra...
macbook ultra

MacBook Ultra OLED Touch Panel to Be Exclusively Supplied by Samsung

Tuesday July 28, 2026 2:16 am PDT by
Apple will exclusively rely on Samsung Display for the production of OLED touch panels for its redesigned upcoming MacBook Pro models, according to a new report from Korea-based The Elec. Citing industry sources, the publication says that the 14-inch and 16-inch panels will be produced at Samsung's 8.6-generation OLED line at Asan, in Korea's South Chungcheong Province. The estimated initial ...