The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-seven newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. While this morning's patent report covers seventeen patents in total, our main focus is placed on Apple winning two major iPod patents covering the user interface and the systems behind their media player. Steve Jobs is noted as one of the inventors of the iPod user interface patent which covers a hierarchically ordered graphical user interface including its "home" UI. Will Apple Legal use these fresh new patents to further protect their iDevices? Time will tell.
Apple Wins iPod User Interface & Related Systems
Apple has been granted a major patent for their iPod user interface and the related systems associated with its operation. Apple's original filing goes all the way back to 2002 and Steve Jobs is noted as one of the inventors.
Apple's patent FIG. 4 shows a state diagram of a user interface suitable for providing user provided input for an exemplary MP3 player (iPod); Patent FIGS. 5A/C/E illustrate various exemplary user interfaces consistent with selection and play of a media asset.
Apple's patent Abstract Reads as Follows: "In a portable multimedia device, a method, apparatus, and system for providing user supplied configuration data are described. In one embodiment, a hierarchically ordered graphical user interface is provided. A first order, or home, interface provides a highest order of user selectable items each of which, when selected, results in an automatic transition to a lower order user interface associated with the selected item. In one of the described embodiments, the lower order interface includes other user selectable items associated with the previously selected item from the higher order user interface."
Apple credits the late CEO Steve Jobs, Jeffrey Robbin, Timothy Wasko (High River Canada), Greg Christie and Imran Chaudhri as the inventors of this granted patent which was originally filed in July 2002 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. This is the second granted patent for this technology. The first was granted in February 2010.
Apple Granted Patent for iPod Media Player System
Apple has been granted a second major patent relating to their iPod media player system.
One aspect of the media player system pertains to a docking station that allows a media player to communicate with other media devices. Another aspect of the media player system pertains to a wireless media player system that includes a hand held media player capable of transmitting information over a wireless connection and one or more media devices capable of receiving information over the wireless connection. Another aspect of the media player system pertains to a method of wirelessly connecting the hand held media player to another device. Another aspect of the media player system pertains to a hand held music player that includes a transmitter for transmitting information over a wireless connection. Yet another aspect of the media player system pertains to a connector that includes housing and a plurality of spatially separated contacts mounted within the housing
Apple credits Anthony Fadell, Stephen Zedesky and John Filson as the inventors of this patent which was originally filed in Q2 2003 (application 13/042,283) and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Apple Wins Design Patent for iPod (Scroll Wheel Version)
Beyond the two key iPod patents granted to Apple this morning, they've also been coincidentally granted another design win for thier iconic media player. Their iPod with a Scroll Wheel version (vs. their Touch Wheel) patent lists the late CEO Steve Jobs as one of the inventors.
Apple credits the late CEO Steve Jobs, VP Industrial Design Jonathan Ive and team members Bartley Andre, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Douglas Satzger, Christopher Stringer, Calvin Seid, Seid Legal representative, Vincent Keane and Eugene Whang as the inventors of Granted Patent D660,82, filed in Q3 2011, though filings date back to 2006.
Final Patent Round-Up
Over and above the granted patents that were specifically reported on today, we present you with links to all of the other granted patents in our Final Patent Round-Up as follows:
8,189,429 Microphone Proximity Detection
Apple's Patent FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a portable handheld device with enhanced proximity detection capabilities; FIG. 2A shows a portable handheld device having an additional microphone located near the receiver speaker for enhanced proximity detection.
8,190,798 Client device configuration based on information stored by host device
8,191,036 Mechanism to support orphaned and partially configured objects
8,190,656 Method and apparatus for managing file extensions in a digital processing system
8,190,638 Methods and systems for managing data
8,190,441 Playback of compressed media files without quantization gaps
8,190,614 Index compression
8,190,566 Trusted index structure in a network environment
8,190,123 System for authentication of network usage
8,189,846 Vented in-the-ear headphone
8,189,769 Systems and methods for encrypting data
8,189,587 Routing table lookup algorithm employing search key having destination address and interface component
8,189,283 Disk drive with state-information data buffer
RE43,438 Extensible, replaceable network component system
RE43,437 Storage volume handling system which utilizes disk images
Notice
Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of granted patents with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any Granted Patent should be read in its entirety for full details. About Comments: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments.
