So, we all know Apples is filing patent applications like it’s their business. This is what they’ve been using for legal ammo as of late, attempting to block the competition and not giving consumers the final say in what they will or will not buy. Well, the questions has come up quite a few times, “Just where the heck has Google been in all of this?”

While I originally assumed that perhaps the internet search giant just didn’t “play ball” that way, today we’ve learned that ‘ol Googs has made a trip by the patent office, filing for a new patent of their very own. The patent in question is “Input to Locked Computing Device,” new method for unlocking a device from Google and their way of circumventing Apple’s “slide-to-unlock” patent — something Apple has been using to attack Samsung for allegedly violating.

The diagram shows a method for unlocking that looks similar to HTC’s Sense 3.0 lockscreen where you can drag icons and jump straight to the chosen application, or even executing shortcuts like directly calling a specific contact or shooting them an SMS. Let’s hope we’re looking at Jelly Bean’s new lockscreen, coming soon to an Android device near you.

[USPTO | Via Patently Apple, Engadget]