Apple Patent Pop-Up Keyboard Letters & Slide-To-Unlock Bar

Apple has successfully patented two of the more basic interface aspects of iOS on the iPhone, the slide-to-unlock bar on the smartphone's lockscreen, and the pop-up characters that feature on its on-screen keyboard.  The two patents, each titled "animated graphical user interfaces for a display screen or portion thereof", were initially filed three years ago but only granted today.

The question is, now that Apple has secured the IP for the two systems, how they will then respond to other smartphone and mobile device manufacturers who have used similar UIs for their own products.  The pop-up keyboard indicators are particularly common, as touchscreen-only devices have proliferated.

[via GoRumors]