It's being reported this afternoon that Apple patents covering the "slide to unlock" feature on smartphones are invalid, Germany's highest appeals court ruled on Tuesday, reaffirming a 2013 decision rejecting the U.S. company's claims by a lower court.

The ruling by the Federal Court of Appeals in Karlsruhe covers one of the Apple iPhone's most popular defining features, of which makers of rival Android-based phones have developed their own versions.

In a statement, the appeals court said it confirmed a ruling by the lower Federal Patent Court that canceled Apple's German patent, based on the technique's similarity to a phone released by Swedish company Neonode Inc. a year before the iPhone's 2007 launch.

Reuters added that the court had found that "The Neonode N1 had substantially similar technical features. It ruled Apple's easier-to-use interface was not in itself patentable.

Apple's last granted patent for the slide-to-unlock feature in the U.S. was issued in January 2015.

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