

Apple wins over Motorola in 'slide-to-unlock' ruling - kschua
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17058508

======
stanleydrew
> Mr Mueller, a patent expert who has in the past consulted for Microsoft,
> described the ruling as a "very significant win for Apple against Android".

How did this guy come to be known as a patent expert? Everything I'm reading
in Wikipedia suggests a rather checkered past with regards to reporting on
patents.

~~~
andybak
Who's predictions are often at odds with other commentators and ends up
looking misguided (a lot of his commentary on Oracle vs Google).

He has some strange axes to grind. I just can't work out why (or exactly what
his precise angle is)

~~~
othermaciej
As far as I can tell, his predictions on Oracle vs Google have been pretty
accurate, despite being at odds with other commentators. Shouldn't we be
looking at how predictions match reality, rather than how they match other
predictions?

~~~
ZeroGravitas
His predictions on damages have been at odds with the Judge's comments which
seems quite important.

~~~
othermaciej
The only dispute I can recall about damages was many people claiming that
Oracle had lowered its damages claims, and Mueller saying they hadn't. When
the full damages report was released, it turned out Mueller was right - they
changed methodology, but the overall figure did not go down.

It's true that the judge has been hard on Oracle's damages report, but I don't
recall Mueller ever saying otherwise. He's always said that they key issue is
Oracle's ability to get a permanent injunction rather than money damages for
past infringement.

------
forza
Hm, I thought the prior art argument was pretty convincing the last time Apple
tried this.

[http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/dutch-judge-
consider...](http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/dutch-judge-considers-
apples-slide-to.html) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-
KS2kfIr0&t=4m10s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-KS2kfIr0&t=4m10s)

~~~
TeeWEE
Yeah in the Netherlands the patent was discarded because of this. It just
absurd that they can use this patent in the US.

------
kitsune_
Next they'll go after the zipper manufacturers.

------
nodata
Because slide to unlock wasn't invented hundreds of years ago for doors.

------
gcb
good riddance. all i need is slide keyboard to unlock.

...of course that that would require keyboards to be back. Hate apple and the
touchscreen fad. I was happy with my crappy nokia, were it not for the speed.
or lack of.

~~~
netcan
grumble grumble

------
misterbee
The bright side is that Android won't be infected with the user-unfriendly
finger-straining slide-to-unlock gimmick.

~~~
callumjones
Is it really that user 'unfriendly'? It seems sort of obvious, you have this
button that looks raised above a track with the guide to slide to unlock. From
what we've seen of toddlers and babies grabbing iPads and iPhones and
unlocking them on first use I think Apple has created a pretty friendly unlock
interface.

I wouldn't call it a gimmick either, because it works. I've never had an
iPhone pocket dial on me.

~~~
peterclary
I have. The home button has become pressed down long enough to trigger Voice
Control, which has then interpreted background noise as a command to call
somebody random.

