Apple's patent trolling has gone on for a while now, stopping Samsung from selling their products in multiple countries, but they've gone too far now. Apple has received a confirmed patent for the "slide to unlock" control in use on every Android phone and tablet that exists.

Every Android device has a slide to unlock feature, where the device is unusable until a slider (or something similar) is slid to a boundary, unlocking the gadget. That simple procedure has now been patented by Apple, removing it from the available design pool to anyone else. This new patent they've successfully achieved, will allow Apple to target any Android device maker it wants and most likely, succeed in court.

Even the Windows Phone devices, sliding the lock screen up to access the phone functions, would probably infringe on Apple's patent. This could even extend out to Windows 8 as the preview builds used the same control to unlock the devices. Apple did file for the slide to unlock patent before the original iPhone was released and just received confirmation of the patent. This now puts every Android device ever made into the targets of Apple's crosshair.