14 DAY TRIAL // Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has got its hands on a slide-to-unlock patent of its own, though its procedure is a bit different than the one used by Apple.
Nokia’s patent involves the sliding of an icon across the screen to reveal at least one app icon. At the same time, the icon slid across the screen expands and is eventually overlaid onto the app icon.
If the user slides further across the screen to a specific unlocking area, the screen will be unlocked and the desired application launched.
Some owners of Android-based devices might have already met this, since manufacturers chose to implement it with their products.
While Nokia has filed for this patent back in 2007, Google reportedly filed for a similar patent last year, though it might take a while before USPTO has a closer look at it.