The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 18 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our first report we primarily covered three colossal patent wins for Apple in the field of Multi-Touch Technology. In this report, we cover several other granted patents published today relating to Apple's OS X Server XGrid, Apple's calendar app iCal, important iPhone parental controls along with a few design patents covering the 3G iPhone dock and Apple's current wireless keyboard.
Granted Patent: Text-based Communication Control for iOS Devices
Apple has been granted a patent for text-based communications on an iOS device in context with providing a wide array of Parental Controls.
Apple's invention, in various embodiments, addresses deficiencies in existing attempts at solutions by providing systems, methods and devices that enable an administrator to control the text-based communications of a user of a text-based communications device through an administrative mode of an intelligent text-based communication control unit or application. The text-based communication control application filters incoming and/or outgoing text-based communications based on administrator-defined criteria.
In one embodiment, the control application includes a parental control application. The parental control application evaluates whether or not the communication contains approved text based on, for example, objective ratings criteria or a user's age or grade level, and, if unauthorized, prevents such text from being included in the text-based communication. If the control contains unauthorized text, the control application may alert the user, the administrator or other designated individuals of the presence of such text. The control application may require the user to replace the unauthorized text or may automatically delete the text or the entire communication.
These techniques also may be used, in accordance with instructional embodiments, to require the administered devices to include certain text in messages. These embodiments might, for example, require that a certain number of Spanish words per day be included in e-mails for a child learning Spanish.
Apple credits Michael Lee and Matthew Lee as the inventors of Granted Patent 7,814,163 originally filed in Q1 2008.
Granted Patent: Apple's iCal Calendar
Apple has finally been granted a patent for their powerful calendar app known as iCal which dates back to 2003.
Technically, Apple's iCal patent generally relates to methods, systems and machine readable media for operating a calendar in a data processing system. In one exemplary method of managing said calendar, which contains at least one event, the method includes subscribing to said calendar which is available in an electronic format, downloading said calendar from a host electronic device to a subscriber electronic device, and storing said calendar in said electronic format to form a local calendar.
Apple credits members of their team in France for Granted Patent 7,814,055 relating to iCal: Jean-Marie Hullot, Bertrand Guiheneuf Laurent Cerveau and Eric Noyau as the inventors. The original filing goes all the way back to Q2 2003.
Granted Patent: Mac OS X Server's XGrid
Apple has been granted a patent for their Mac OS X Server's XGrid: The Simple Solution for Distributed Computing.
Apple's Patent Abstract states that "systems and methods for resource management are provided. In one implementation a computing system is provided. The computing system includes a controller having an associated information base; the information base including a plurality of resource definitions, a partition definition defining a plurality of partitions, and a plurality of queues. Each partition includes a grouping of one or more resources available to process user jobs and each partition has a name. At least one queue of the plurality of queues is associated with each partition in the partition definition. The controller includes an administrative interface for managing partitions, resources and queues and an authorization routine operable to receive named jobs, a named job identifying a partition in the partition definition, and assign named jobs to an associated partition queue for processing by one of the resources in an associated grouping of one or more resources.
Apple credits David Creemer and David Kramer as the inventors of Granted Patent 7,814,492 originally filed in Q2 2005.
Granted Design Patents: Wireless Keyboard, iPhone 3G Dock
Apple has been granted design patents for their wireless keyboard, the iPhone 3G Dock and two different dock inserts under design patents D625,292 and D625,293.
Other Interesting Granted Patents (GP) Published Today
GP - 7,813,697 - Power efficient high speed communication systems and methods: Apple's Patent Abstract: Systems and methods for utilizing multiple wireless communication protocols are provided. In one embodiment, the portable device includes circuitry for providing wireless communications utilizing a low power, relatively slow communications protocol, such as Bluetooth, to establish a communications path between two wireless devices. When high speed communications are preferred, the two devices can agree to switch to a different, high speed protocol, such as Wi-Fi, for communications. In this manner, power loss is minimized while one of the devices is seeking another communications node. In another embodiment, the high speed communications are performed utilizing a private network established between the two devices in which a non-standard protocol is utilized. That protocol could be, for example, a minimized subset of 802.11 instructions.
GP - 7,814,432 - Method and System for Image Rendering Including Polymorphic Image Data in a Graphical User Interface: Apple's Patent Abstract: A method and system are provided for developing images for use in a graphical user interface. In one implementation, the method includes displaying a graphical user interface on a display device, and providing an operating system on a computer that is in communication with the display device. The operating system includes an imaging object structure that is an abstract base class from which subclasses of text imaging objects, picture imaging objects, and pattern imaging objects are derivable. The subclasses of text imaging objects, picture imaging objects, and pattern imaging objects are used to respectively generate text imaging objects, picture imaging objects, and pattern imaging objects for display in the graphical user interface.
Notice: Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent application and/or Issued Patent should be read in its entirety for further details. About Comments: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments.
