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

bluespark Avatar
82 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
82 months ago
I really miss slide to unlock!!!
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GeneralChang Avatar
82 months ago
Oh, for the love. Somebody just pay somebody and let's move on.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dmylrea Avatar
82 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)
apolloa Avatar
82 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)
Rocketman Avatar
82 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)

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