A UK court has rejected a patent-infringement claim from Apple against HTC, Bloomberg reports from London. HTC's devices don't infringe the four Apple patents for the technology and three of those patents are invalid, Judge Christopher Floyd said. In addition to the slide-to-unlock feature for touchscreens, the ruling covered Apple's patents on tools used to scroll through photographs and change alphabets, and software allowing users to touch the screen in two spots simultaneously. While the court ruled that Apple's photo-management patent is valid, Floyd found that HTC didn't infringe it. The same four patents are being contested by Apple and HTC in German lawsuits, scheduled to be heard later this year.
