In response to Derek Huang’s blog

https://blogs.ubc.ca/derekhuang/

Contrary to Derek’s opinion that iPhone is being unethical; I believe that Apple has every right to patent such technology. Touchscreen unlock is by no means a simple function that is obvious to the average person to discover. Firstly, the touchscreen unlock consists of two components, the pressing of the home button to light the screen, and then sliding the finger across the screen to unlock. If efficiency and rationality is taken into consideration, the touchscreen unlock feature is entirely redundant and the phone can simply be unlocked through pressing the home button. Yet despite this redundancy, other firms are essentially copying Apple’s touchscreen feature. Most notable is the Android system.

One of the reasons for the existence of a patent is to encourage innovation, which provides the rational to why people do research and development. Touchscreen unlock seems to be a simple function because our mind unconditionally associated two concepts together: sliding the finger across the screen and unlocking the phone. However, upon a closer examination on this scenario, a third step is required (the pressing of the home button). Therefore logically concluding, touchscreen unlock is an innovation because it is an add-on, not a simple, obvious function.