The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 10 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In round two of our patent reporting on this day, we focus on Apple's earphone remote with mic and strategic patent wins covering the actual design of the third generation iPod touch and its sophisticated assembly methodologies.
Granted Design Patent: iPod Touch
Apple has been granted a design patent for their third generation iPod touch released on September 09, 2009. This is the model which introduced the breakthrough price of just $199.
Apple credits VP Industrial Design Jonathan Ive and team members Bartley Andre, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Evans Hankey, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas Satzger, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer as the inventors of Granted Patent D630,630.
Granted Patent: iPod Touch – Methods of Assembly
Apple has been granted a patent for the design and assembly of the iPod touch which includes a seamless housing.
The design of the iPod touch includes at least a seamless housing having an integral bottom and side walls that cooperate to form a cavity in cooperation with a front opening having a flat top surface, the bottom wall having a curved bottom surface, the side walls being rounded such that they form a curved side surface and an undercut within the cavity, an edge of the side walls surrounding and defining the front opening and a plurality of electronic assemblies inserted into the seamless housing through the front opening and secured to the bottom surface of the housing, wherein a Z height tolerance of the plurality of electronic assemblies is minimized such that an upper surface of a topmost electronic assembly is substantially coplanar with the flat top surface of the housing.
The patent also introduces us to a method of self centering the topmost glass of the iPod touch. The glass unit includes an environmental seal having a tapered portion, wherein at least some of the tapered portion of the environmental seal extends beyond an inner edge of the front opening.
The patent also covers the iPod touch's integrated speaker assembly which includes a piezoelectric speaker and an acoustic seal having a plurality of acoustic seal gaps that work in cooperation with the piezoelectric speaker to direct the sound produced by the piezoelectric speaker to a desired location in the iPod touch.
Apple credits Teodor Dabov, Hui Leng Lim, Kyle Yeates and Stephen Lynch as the inventors of Granted Patent 7,869,206, originally filed in Q3 2008.According to Apple's patent, some assembly methodologies apply to all of Apple's handhelds, mainly indicated as the iPod, iPod Nano, Pod Shuffle, iPod Touch or an iPhone.
Granted Patent: Earphones with Remote and Mic
Apple has been granted a patent for their earphones with remote mic which is compatible with all handhelds including the iPad and latest iPod nano. The invention adds a control capsule located on the cable of the right earpiece that includes a microphone and three buttons. It allows you to adjust the volume, control video playback and includes play/pause/next/previous controls. The unit supports voice memos on certain devices and allows iPhone users to answer and end calls.
Apple credits Wendell Sander, Jeffrey Terlizzi, Douglas Farrar, Timothy Johnson, Brian Sander, Brian Conner and Jesse Dorogusker as the inventors of Granted Patent 7,869,608, originally filed in Q3 2008.
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.
