HTC wins swipe to unlock patent dispute against Apple
> 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.No, no, no. It is clearly obvious, the fact that there happens to also be prior art just adds insult to injury. If there had not been prior art, it would still be a frivolous, trivial patent.This is exactly what's wrong with the patent system - you don't need prior art to tell you something is obvious and should be unpatentable.