On
June 8th, Swedish touch-screen technology specialist Neoode filed a
patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in the Texas West District Court.
Neonode's recently claimed that iPhone 11 Pro and iPad Pro have infringed their
patent, which models are equipped with the ability to unlock the screen by lifting
it up, so-called ‘Quick Pass’ feature that allows users to enter words with
sliding without lifting fingers off from the keyboard.
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| 🔺 neonode.com |
'Slide
to unlock' that appeared in a lawsuit of Apple v. Samsung
Among
the patents that Neonode claims to infringe, the 'Slide to unlock' is
particularly noticeable. In 2012, Apple claimed that Samsung infringed on a
patent related to the 'Slide to unlock' feature. The US court ruled that
Samsung should pay Apple about USD130 bil. in damages. However, German lawsuits
had opposite results from those in the United States. Samsung has searched and
submitted prior art for the 'Slide to unlock' feature, and as a result, the
German Supreme Court has invalidated Apple's European patent (EP1964022).
 |
| 🔺 wipsglobal.com the drawing of the Apple's patent, EP1964022 |
Neonode,
the owner of prior art found by Samsung
Apple's
patent in the German lawsuit was invalidated by Neonode’s patent Samsung found.
At the time, Neonode's patent, which had affected to the lawsuit, was simply to
slide the screen to activate the specified feature. But this time, the patent
that Neonode claimed to infringe is a combination of a touch screen and gesture
recognition, and has been upgraded that the previous one proposed by Samsung as
a prior art. This patented technology is a technology related to a user
interface that performs various predefined features after detecting a user's
unique behavior on a touch display.
 |
| 🔺 wipsglobal.com Neonode's patent "User Interface" |
The
lawsuit seems against Apple
It
was reported that Neonode filed a lawsuit and submitted evidence that Apple had
intentionally infringed even though they were aware of the patent existing. In
the litigation document, the details of the patent dispute between Samsung and
Apple were described in detail, and it was emphasized that the company's patent
was recognized as a prior art in the process.
 |
| 🔺 wipsglobal.com Litigation search, 'Neonode v. Apple' |
From
Apple's point of view, it seems highly likely that the lawsuit will flow quite
difficult to Apple. If they deny the novelty of Neonode and insist on the
existence of prior art, it would prove that their patent is also invalid, and they
would have difficulties to insist on their patent's advancement, so it seems
that there is a great difficulty in building a lawsuit strategy. Back in the
times that Apple had accused Samsung of copycats, is a situation turning back
to Apple. We’re wondering how Apple will overcome this crisis.
