After Motorola won an injunction against Apple in German court — leading to the temporary removal of iPads and iPhones from the German online Apple Store earlier this month — Cupertino has volleyed its own legal cannonball, winning a patent dispute against Moto over the “slide to unlock” feature.
.
.
.
As far as slide to unlock is concerned, this patent is the first win for Apple in the ongoing legal battle. Motorola told Business Week that it “has implemented a new design for the feature. Therefore, we expect no impact on current supply or future sales.” The injunction against Motorola only applies to its Android 2.0 Gingerbread devices, which use a slide-unlock method similar to Apple’s. The Motorola Xoom tablet, which uses Android 3.0’s spherical unlock, was not part of Apple’s victory.
