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The Patents Behind the Modern Smartphone

Slide-to-unlock. Pinch-to-zoom. Multi-touch. The IP that defined the smartphone era.

The smartphone in your pocket is the product of thousands of patents — but a handful became culturally significant because they captured the intuitive gestures that everyone understood immediately. Apple's slide-to-unlock patent sparked one of the largest patent lawsuits in history. Multi-touch ellipse detection — the math that makes pinch-to-zoom feel natural — was a separate invention. Wi-Fi's multi-speed protection protocol made smartphones useful outside the home. BlackBerry's handheld wireless communication patents defined what a smartphone could be before Apple changed the definition entirely. These are the patents, and the stories behind them.

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