The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 13 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today in addition to 3 industrial design patents covering Apple's MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. The notable granted patents presented in our report today includes one relating to Apple's advanced iPod Click Wheel, another relating to the iPhone's alert silencing system and perhaps the most important, a never released battery charging system covering a wide variety of devices. The proposed system would allow batteries to be charged by plugging them directly into a future specialized iMac and/or keyboard slot.
On March 1, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark application for "Joint Venture" under application 77942739. Apple has filed their trademark under International Classes 35 relating to retail services; 37 relating to Maintenance/repair and consultancy services; 41 relating to education services and 42 relating to hardware and software technical support. Today, Apple offers various in-store training services such as the Genius Bar, Business, Youth Programs and One-to-One. Their latest trademark would suggest that they may have developed yet another in-store business class service. Then again, could Apple be thinking of something bigger or bolder here, such as kick starting a new venture capital subsidiary? At Apple's latest Shareholder's meeting held last week, Steve Jobs stated that "When we think about big, bold things, we know that if we needed to acquire something, a piece of the puzzle, to make something big and bold a reality, we could write a check for it." Although the former is more likely to fit the bill for their latest trademark filing, the latter can't be easily discounted. For now, we'll let Apple's competition brood over that last possibility for awhile.
