Apple is not really a new player in the patent war, having won and lost a number of cases here an there. So it may not come as a surprise to many that Apple has lost yet another battle, this time regarding the swipe to unlock feature.

Swipe to Unlock Patent Voided

Yes, Apple has finally lost their European patent for the ‘swipe to unlock’ feature as they challenged the top court in Germany to overturn an earlier ruling that voided the patent. The judges at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe decided that the patent was not new at all, as a Swedish company had actually developed it even before the iPhone was released to consumers.

Now this is a really big problem because this decision greatly affects Apple’s battle against Motorola. The Apple patent, EP1964022, was given to the tech giant in 2010. It was also a huge factor in winning a 2012 case against Motorola back when it was still a Google company. The outcome of that case, however, has been in appeal since then. Now that the patent has been voided by the German courts, then this could spell victory for Motorola, which is now owned by Lenovo.

What caused the decision to be so? Well, German patent laws clearly states that every software program that is hoping to get a patent should at least solve a technical problem. Unfortunately, the German courts believe that this is one requirement that is not entirely met by the swipe to unlock feature. Although it does make unlocking an iPhone a whole lot easier for users, aside from the fact that it does look sleek and trendy on your lock screen, it does not really solve any technical issues that affect the use of the phone, tablet, or other similar Apple devices. The feature was then dismissed as a mere graphic feature, and not really a technical breakthrough.

Not a Patent Battle Rookie

Apple has been in the middle of countless patent wars before, some more popular than others. Earlier this year, Apple has already been ordered to pay $532.9M in damages because of three patents that they infringed in developing the iTunes software.

All three patents were said to be owned by Smartflash LLC, who had originally been asking for $852M in damages. They sued Apple in May 2013 because of patents that relate to the way the iTunes allowed users to store and access their songs, games, and videos.

In the same Tyler federal court, Apple also lost an earlier patent battle against VirnetX, ordering Apple to pay $368M in damages. That amount was eventually thrown out by the federal appeals court because of

wrong calculations made.

How will this affect Apple? We’ll probably see any impact this would make in the next few weeks. As for now, there’s no need to run off and sell iPhone units that you have just yet. Apple is a veteran in these kinds of patent wars, so they will definitely not allow these to affect their users.