page_title: Lock screen
section_title: Patent litigation
hierarchical_section_title: Lock screen / Patent litigation
caption_attribution_description: English: A picture of the Neonode N2 mobile phone.
context_page_description: A lock screen is a computer user interface element used by various operating systems. They regulate immediate access to a device by requiring that the user perform a certain action in order to receive access, such as entering a password, using a certain button combination, or performing a certain gesture using a device's touchscreen.
  Depending on the operating system and device type, a lock screen can range from a simple login screen, to an overview screen with the current date and time, weather, recent notifications, playback controls for media being played in the background, shortcuts to applications, and optionally, the contact information of the device's owner.
context_section_description: Apple holds several patents related to the sliding lock screen used by its iOS devices: it was granted U.S. Patent 7,657,849 in 2010, and U.S. Patent 8,046,721 in 2011, describing a system that involves continuously dragging an image to a certain point to unlock the device. As part of ongoing patent wars between numerous companies surrounding patents related to mobile devices, Apple asserted these patents in several patent infringement lawsuits outside the United States with competing vendors.
  Apple's lawsuits with Samsung in the Netherlands and HTC in the United Kingdom both led to failure: both courts ruled the patents to be invalid, citing the similar lock screen on the N1, a mobile phone manufactured by the Swedish company Neonode, as prior art for Apple's design. The British court specifically ruled that Apple's lock screen was an "obvious improvement" over that of the Neonode N1 due to its additional visual feedback through an on-screen slider graphic (unlike the N1, which only displayed a written instruction explaining the gesture). Early work on touchscreen technology from the University of Maryland Human – Computer Interaction Lab was also cited as prior art, in particular a 1991 touchscreen slider developed by Catherine Plaisant
  In January 2012, Apple won a permanent injunction from a German court after it ruled that Motorola Mobility violated the patents on some of its recent devices (although the Motorola Xoom tablet was ruled not to have infringed on the patent). However, Apple was warned that they would have been required to put up a bond as insurance if they were to allow the injunction to take effect, and any potential sales ban as a result would be limited to Germany.
caption: Courts cited mobile phones by Neonode as prior art for Apple's iOS lock screen.
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