Apple has been granted a patent in the US for unlocking touchscreen devices with a swipe gesture.

To The Register’s admittedly non-lawyer eyes, it looks like this. If you:

• Unlock a device using a gesture on a touch-sensitive display;
• Display an icon telling punters they have to unlock the device;
• Design the icon to tell users which direction they have to swipe the icon to unlock the device; or
• Provide visual cues for users too dumb to remember the unlock gesture;

…then you’d be breaching the patent.

Apple has been granted a patent in the US for unlocking touchscreen devices with a swipe gesture. To The Register’s admittedly non-lawyer eyes, it looks like this. If you: Unlock a device using a gesture on a touch-sensitive display; Display an icon telling punters they have to unlock the device; Design the icon to tell users which direction they have ...