HTC is claiming victory in a patent dispute with Apple after a ruling by the High Court in London.
The judge ruled that HTC had not infringed four technologies that Apple had claimed as its own.
He said Apple's slide-to-unlock feature was an "obvious" development in the light of a similar function on an earlier Swedish handset.
Apple has also cited the patent in disputes against firms using Google's Android system software.

The judge said that HTC's "arc unlock" feature - which also involves a predefined gesture along a path shown on-screen - would have infringed Apple's technology had it not been for a device released in 2004.

Apple declined to comment on the specifics of the case.
Instead it re-issued an earlier statement, saying: "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."

In a 1994 interview about his company's mastery of stealing ideas from others, Steve Jobs said "Picasso had a saying - 'Good artists copy, great artists steal.' And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."

..and then in a comment that has a Sony amount of fail boat attached to it and obviously said without any irony

obviously not remembering S. Jobs comment

Remember that the defeat is in this country, and this is not likely to influence any international decisions on patent verification.

This is doing no one any good, other than the lawyers.