>copying their years of research and development in methods to
>unlock a phone.

Years of research into turning on a phone?

Like, Hardware and Software guts and basic design I can understand...but when you start playing with general concepts like 'turning on a phone' it gets problematic.

Imagine if nintendo trademarked 'a button used to pause the action on the videogame screen'

I understand protecting assets, I understand protecting code, I understand protecting engineering. But for general user interface ideas, I don't think it's a good thing at all.