Smartphone Patents: The Never-Ending War

Customers shopping for Apple Inc.’s iPhone might pay little attention to the gadget’s “slide to unlock” feature, but you would never know that from a quick glance at Apple’s current roster of patent lawsuits.

The technology giant has secured two key U.S. patents on slide-to-unlock — a technology that lets users wake a dormant phone with a finger-swipe across the screen. And it is wielding those patents like swords against rivals around the world.

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