http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15461732

Apple patents touchscreen unlock gestures

Recently Apple has established a new patent over the unlocking feature on either a smartphone or tablet, which comprise of a touchscreen motion. This proposal was submitted in June 2009 consisting of various unlocking techniques and styles. The newly made patent will possibly be Apple’s new weapon towards it’s rival manufacturers; with specific focus on main competitors such as Android, and W7 phones. Attacks were mostly directed at the Android because Steve Jobs “vowed to destroy it”, due to the fact that it was a “iOS rip off”. Although other companies such as Samsung has been actively fighting back with their patents, but they were unsuccessful.

I believe this patent by Apple is very unethical due to the fact that it is patenting something that is so simple, which everyone should have the right to use. The patent is also in other words, too general or cover too many areas of innovations restricting other companies from using them. A touchscreen unlock function, I am sure, is not new to many, and can be said or recognized as a daily or normal function. Why should something so simple be patent, which reframes some people from using it? Apple mainly covers 16% of the software in the smartphone market, which means the other 84% of the smartphone users wouldn’t be able to further utilize this straightforward practice.