| 1 | FRANKFURT - Apple Inc. patents covering the "slide to unlock" feature on smartphones are invalid, Germany's highest appeals court ruled on Tuesday, reaffirming a 2013 decision rejecting the U.S. company's claims by a lower court. |
| 2 | The ruling by the Federal Court of Appeals in Karlsruhe covers one of the Apple iPhone's most popular defining features, of which makers of rival Android-based phones have developed their own versions. |
| 3 | In a statement, the appeals court said it confirmed a ruling by the lower Federal Patent Court that cancelled Apple's German patent, based on the technique's similarity to a phone released by Swedish company Neonode Inc. a year before the iPhone's 2007 launch. |
| 4 | Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. |
| 5 | The Neonode N1 had substantially similar technical features, the patent court had found. |
| 6 | It ruled Apple's easier-to-use interface was not in itself patentable. |
| 7 | Neonode sold tens of thousands of phones before declaring bankruptcy in 2008. |
| 8 | It reorganized itself as an intellectual property firm licensing its patented optical technology for use in phones, tablets, readers and other touchscreen devices. |
| 9 | Motorola Mobility, at the time a unit of Google Inc but now owned by China's Lenovo Group Ltd., filed the original suit in a Munich court against the Apple user interface patent. |
| 10 | Apple won that case but the ruling was later overturned by the federal patent court. |