It may be the world's most valuable patent - "Swipe" - two Swedish inventors are behind it, one of them is Thomas Eriksson

In a world where touchscreens are now ubiquitous, it's hard to imagine a time when swiping and gesturing on a mobile device wasn't the norm. But back in the early 2000s, two Swedish innovators, Thomas Eriksson and Magnus Goertz at Neonode, were ahead of the game.

Together, they set out to revolutionize the way we interact with our mobile devices. Their vision was to create an interface that could be controlled with quick swipes and gestures, a concept that was virtually unheard of at the time.

In 2004, they unveiled their first product, the mobile N1, which quickly captured the attention of tech enthusiasts and industry experts alike. This ground-breaking device was the first of its kind to feature a touch-sensitive screen that responded to finger movements. With patents secured, they were ready to launch an interface that would end up being used daily by billions of users worldwide.

But despite their ground-breaking concept, Eriksson and Goertz didn't receive the recognition they deserved. Having recognized that this was the interface of the future, a few years later, Apple launched the iPhone.

Neonode was first

It would take two decades and an enormous patent dispute before it became official. In December 2022, Neonode was recognized as the first with swipe and gesture control, when Samsung and Apple failed to invalidate Neonode's basic patent for swipes and gestures on mobiles.

Today, Thursday, May 11, part 1 of the Miljardpatentet (in Swedish) from Spotify Dok has been released, telling the story of the two Swedish inventors, Thomas Eriksson, and Magnus Goertz, and how they created an era-defining interface. It also describes the fight against the tech giants Apple, Samsung, and Google.

"We thought that you would ideally like to be able to use a mobile phone with one hand."

In the early 2000s, phone touch screens were still in an early phase. They did not provide a different user experience since you could not control the mobile phone with your fingers… You had to use a "pen." Thomas and Magnus wanted a mobile phone that users could control with their fingers and one hand. They had to develop an entirely new technology, hardware, and software, to make it possible to go from "pointing" to "swiping." "With swiping, you could replace complex keyboard presses with simple swiping movements across the screen," says Thomas, now the co-founder of XIRIS Group, part of UX Ventures AB.

Thomas continues, "We thought that you would ideally like to use a mobile phone with one hand to be able to navigate with your thumb and reach the entire screen surface. The second was that you should go from tapping to swiping because it is much easier to use your mobile phone that way."

The patents for that technology have revolutionized how we interact with cell phones, screens, and mobile technology. According to experts, the value of the patents could theoretically be up to 50 billion dollars - "the world's most valuable patent." The legal proceedings are still ongoing. In the next step, the court must determine whether it is a patent infringement and how much damages may be awarded in that case. The trial against Samsung will be on June 28, 2024. To be continued.

Thomas Eriksson - again ahead of his time

"They prefer to talk about their new inventions, and I suspect that they have something big going on, that they are once again ahead of their time," says Jesper Spanne, producer of the billion-dollar patent for Spotify Dok, in the last part of the documentary series.

Thomas left his role as CEO of Neonode Inc (NASDAQ:NEON) in 2018 and continues to push technology forward at XIRIS Group and UX Ventures AB, building companies, products, and services powered by MIRS™ technology - Mobile Interactive Real-Time Streaming.

XIRIS portfolio companies create next-gen mobile user experiences powered by proprietary real-time streaming software. With this technology, even the smallest device unlocks virtually infinite amounts of processing power.

The XIRIS portfolio includes, among others, UXstream AB, developer of the MIRS™ technology which enables Ecological Computing™, and Platonum, developer of the world's first Deep Augment™ watch.