On the surface, this certainly looks like a classic David and Goliath case. Individual Jerald Bovino is taking on Apple claiming that the iPad Smart Cover infringes on his "portable computer case" patent. Bovino is seeking a royalty from Apple and/or $100,000. At the end of the day, once you actually see the design, you'll have to admit that Bovino has a lot of courage taking on the number one tech company in the world.  

On April 26, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that introduces us to gifting iTunes purchases via NFC or email. Apple's patent generally relates to digital media content and electronic devices being configured to transfer information from one user's account to another user's account. Apple will also allow users to share iTunes Playlists – though at a cost being that it's in context with "gifting," as Apple calls it. It sounds like a great idea and it should be available when NFC based iDevices finally debut.  

On April 26, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office published three interesting patent applications from Apple. In the first one, Apple seeks to patent their Upper West Side (NYC) retail store structure that's located at 67th Street and Broadway. Just last week they filed a similar patent application for their Shanghai Apple Store. This trend of patenting "Flagship" store designs is likely to be a trend that will continue going forward. In a second patent application, we see that Apple has developed a new OLED driver which indicates that Apple is considering OLED for future MacBook and iOS device displays. The advantage to OLED is that display-backlighting isn't required. In the third patent application we see that Apple is legally beefing up their patent pending MacBook Air by including nine related patent applications under one roof. Is Apple making this move to protect their design if challenged or could it be used offensively in the future against copycat OEM designs hiding under Wintel's Ultrabook banner? Time will tell.  

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-five newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. The vast majority of today's granted patents would be considered utility based patents for things such as connectors, security, networking and more. Yet a few that stood out include Apple's second iTunes Store related patent in as many weeks and Apple's fifth win for Time Machine, their OS X based backup software. To close things off, Apple has been granted four design patents covering an in-store display structure and much more.  

A Pennsylvania company by the name of FlatWorld has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in the California Northern District Court in San Francisco. The patent infringement lawsuit concerns Apple's entire line-up of touch related products. Once again, a company is suing Apple regarding touch technology that doesn't relate to Apple's multi-touch technology in any way. The patent background states that the inventor "developed a testing tool with a touch screen programmed to allow children to directly manipulate or move objects on the screen, and 'hide' them behind other objects." It's very difficult to understand how this relates to any of Apple's iDevices or Magic Mouse for that matter. In my opinion, it's simply a bizarre stretch. It's also difficult for the average Joe to understand how a company who took assignment of a patent for the sole purpose of suing others can actually claim that they've been "damaged" in any way by products for which they have no equivalents. Yet in the legal world, imaginary "damages" appear to be the real thing – whether we understand it or not.  

On April 19, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office published two of Apple's inventions relating to next generation connectors designed with slimmer devices in mind. The new connectors that are designed to be smarter, stronger and safer will apply to all of Apple's future hardware.

In March we broke the news on Apple winning a design patent for Apple's Shanghai's Glass Store entrance. Today we see that Apple is now seeking to protect that design even further by filing a patent application for it. Apple's patent details various aspects of the glass structure and we present you with a few of the key graphics in today's report.  

Apple definitely has their eye on the corporate world as a new patent application published by the US Patent and Trademark Office today reveals that they've invented a new and more convenient way to sign electronic documents. Many professions and governmental agencies have to deal with signing legal documents every day and Apple's new methodology may be the magic bullet in making this process convenient for electronic forms. Apple has also created several security measures that will appeal to both corporate and consumer markets alike. Whether Apple plans to keep this technical methodology for their new signature application alone or try to make it an industry standard is unknown at this time.  

Patently Apple has reported on most Intel Developer Conferences over the last few years simply because Apple had transitioned from the Power PC to the Intel Architecture back in 2005-2006. Yet once Apple introduced the iPhone, there was a definite disconnect between the two companies publically. There were a series of snipes from the Intel camp towards Apple at various IDF events and there was definitely some real tension between these two companies. Over the last twelve to eighteen months Intel has clearly aimed their sights on Apple's MacBook Air with the introduction of the Ultrabook. They're also squarely aiming to challenge iTunes on Ultrabooks in the future as well. As you could see in our opening graphic, Intel's 2012 Beijing IDF slide makes it clear: An Industry Call to Action for the Ultrabook and beyond. As you will see, Intel isn't only trying to follow Apple's lead in notebook designs but also the iMac and iPhone too.

At the beginning of the month we posted a report titled "Looking into One of Apple's Special-Purpose Liquidmetal Projects" that was based on several patents related to Apple's agreement with Liquidmetal Technologies. Today we learn that Apple and Samsung Electronics plan to shift their respective smartphone designs to new lightweight materials with Apple specifically shifting to the use of liquidmetal.  

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-two newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our third and final report of the day, we mainly focus in on two granted patents. The first one briefly covers a possible future Motion Tracking User Interface that some have dubbed a head tracking interface. This would of course work like a charm with Apple's patent pending 3D version of OS X. The second patent covers advancements possibly earmarked for a future iteration of Apple's Magic Mouse. The advancement cover such things as paint brush stroke capabilities and advanced maneuvering that you'd expect to only find in a video game.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of twenty-two newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. One of the main patents that Apple has won today relates to their tenth Telephonic MacBook patent. Apple's Telephonic MacBook will at minimum present users with the convenience of always-on service much like today's LTE iPad. Previous generations of wireless technology such as 3G were designed with telephony in mind. The LTE wireless standard was designed with data transmission in mind which is ideal for devices such as the iPad and especially the MacBook Pro for road warriors. Whether this is a 2012 or 2013 feature is irrelevant for now. The point is that an LTE based MacBook is a no brainer that will make its way to market when Apple deems it to be the right time. In addition to the MacBook adopting cellular capabilities, Apple's patent delivers a few other interesting twits that are noteworthy.