U.S. Patent 7657849 was awarded to Apple Inc. on 2010-02-02 and describes a “Unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image.” This patent has been cited 400 times by other U.S. patents which places it in the top 500 cited patents since 2010 according to our law firm research, and makes it of the most innovative computer technology patents in the field of electrical engineering. The abstract states:

A device with a touch-sensitive display may be unlocked via gestures performed on the touch-sensitive display. The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device. The device displays one or more unlock images with respect to which the predefined gesture is to be performed in order to unlock the device. The performance of the predefined gesture with respect to the unlock image may include moving the unlock image to a predefined location and/or moving the unlock image along a predefined path. The device may also display visual cues of the predefined gesture on the touch screen to remind a user of the gesture. Link: U.S. Patent 7657849

This patent was originally filed on 2005-12-23 which gives it a processing time of 1502 days, compared to an average processing time of 1905 in the field. Apple Inc. has 15027 total patents. The first named inventor is Imran A. Chaudhri of SF, CA. The assistant examiner was Andres E Gutierrez.

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