The inevitable: When Motorola preemptively launched their declaration judgment action against Apple earlier this month, we knew that Apple was likely to launch multiple patent infringement lawsuits against Motorola once their licensing negotiations failed to produce an agreement. Late yesterday, Apple filed a pair of patent infringement lawsuits against Motorola Inc. and Motorola Mobility Inc. in the Wisconsin Western District Court. The combined lawsuits cover six patents – none of which were covered by Motorola Mobility Inc.'s filed lawsuits. The main focus of these lawsuits centers in on the most important technology of all pertaining to the next generation smartphones: Multi-Touch. In 2009, Apple's COO Tim Cook warned the competition during a financial conference, as follows: "we like competition as long as they don't rip off our IP. And if they do, we will go after anyone who does." Obviously Apple now thinks that Motorola has crossed that line.
On October 28, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application of Apple's that relates to methods and apparatus for connecting together two electrical devices in which the mating connectors on each device are of different sizes. The mismatch of physical characteristics could be overcome through the use of an audio adaptor unit that is constructed from a plug having one dimension, a jack having another dimension and a coupler that physically and electrically connects the plug and jack together to form a single unit. In the future, this would allow a device like the iPhone to be coupled to such devices as the Ameriphone - cell phone for the deaf – and Bose's QuietComfort headphones. In a secondary patent published today, Apple reveals an early plug removal detection system that could help avoid iPhone disconnects that are caused by earphones jack connections.
In June of this year we presented you with a patent report covering Apple's stunningly crafted iPhone 4. In today's patent report we reveal yet another fanatical industrial design process of Apple's covering nitriding stainless steel. This process is used to create the iPhone 4's steel band which is aesthetically appealing while being scratch and corrosion resistant. And who knows, we may one day see this material extended to entire back panel of a future iPhone.
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of thirteen newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. The notable wins within this group relate to Final Cut Pro, the SnapBack feature found in Apple's Safari browser, the technology behind Apple's brilliant LED backlit displays and finally a design win for their famous Mac OS logo.
Just two weeks prior to Apple's Special Event that provided us with a Peek at Mac OS X Lion, Apple filed for two of their key trademarks in Jamaica: Lion and Mission Control. The third trademark application for "LaunchPad" was only filed the day of Apple's special event in Trinidad and Tobago. The three applications were then quickly filed in China and made public this morning. Apple filed their trademarks under a total of six International Trademark Classes covering them for such things as being an Application Service Provider (ASP), being a provider of education and entertainment services and covering all manner of telecommunications. Apple plans to launch Mac OS X Lion sometime next summer. Update - October 27: Apple Files for new "App LaunchPad" trademark twist in Canada.
Apple will ultimately introduce us to the "Telephonic MacBook" one shiny day. Perhaps when Apple's OS X Lion roars in next year we'll see their MacBook family integrate a blisteringly fast LTE solution - hopefully an LTE-Advanced solution. Obviously Apple wasn't' willing to provide this year's MacBook Air with a telephonic solution, so we'll just have to be patient. Until such time arrives, you could read about Apple's improved yet evolutionary tethering technology in today's patent.
On October 21, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's patent application titled "Systems and Methods for Operating a Disk Drive." Apple's patent generally relates to electronic devices and, more specifically, to systems and methods for storing electronic data to a file storage device – that in-part – utilizes flash memory for frequently updated information on a device such a DVR. Apple's entire patent is about the technical aspects of a combo "hard disk + solid state drive" and yet scantily references a DVR to provide us with a focal point so as to help us recognize an example of where such a drive would be commercially applied. Add this to Apple's "Hobby" project called Apple TV.
On October 21, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published three patent applications from Apple relating to various areas of a cloud based radio broadcasting system. One of Apple's patents generally relates to accessing the media content provided by a broadcast media source using a non-broadcast source. An interesting example relates to listening to a tune or talk show guest on your car radio (or passengers watching a future TV show). When you're driving into a tunnel with a traditional radio system, you simply lose your signal and any part of a tune or conversation that occurred while you were in the tunnel. With a cloud based radio system, the tune, talk show conversation, or podcast (or future TV show) is flagged as you go into a tunnel and then technically resume exactly where it stopped when you exit the tunnel.
On October 20, the Patent & Trademark Office in China published Apple's latest trademark application for the word "Bumper" associated with the iPhone's rubber bumper casing under application 301738837. Apple has filed their trademark under two International Classes covering sleeves, covers and cases in addition to calling and credit card cases for mobile phones and more. The iPhone 4 Bumper case was in the news over the summer as it was part of a special program. If you had purchased an iPhone 4 before September 30, 2010, you got one for free due to the so-called antenna problem.
It seems that everyone is getting a little testy when it comes to the iPad of late. Heck, even Steve Jobs took off his gloveson Monday to prematurely bury RIM and poke Google's Eric Schmidt in the eye. You have to remember that this is the second time that Steve Jobs has tried to rile his competitors. But in the bigger picture, this kind of jostling is just beginning to heat up. Research in Motion's (RIMs) CEO fired back and touched on Apple's famous "Reality Distortion Field." And now, Acer is jumping in by insulting consumers who love the iPad.
On the eve of Apple introducing an all new MacBook Air design at a special "Back to the Mac" event tomorrow, Apple has been granted two design patents for their current design. The notables within the remaining seven granted patents that were issued today include a huge win for Apple's iChat video conferencing architecture as well as a win for their Quartz Extreme compositor.
This week the European Trademarks and Designs Registration Office confirmed that one of Apple's new iPad designs is displaying an extra left side 30 pin connector to allow it to dock in landscape mode under application001222905-0001. The first sighting of this design was noted on September 25, 2010. This time around, we see that Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive have signed off on the design. That's always a good sign for things to come, wouldn't you agree?
