The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 47 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's invention relating to a secure identity service for iMessage and FaceTime as well as a patent for a magnetic rotation actuator for a power adapter. We wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

Granted Patent: System and Method for Secure Identity Service

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to an improved apparatus and method for a secure identify service.

Many current P2P applications such as instant messaging and video chat do not provide adequate security measures to protect the underlying content transmitted between peers. Accordingly, improved techniques are needed for identifying peers and providing secure P2P transactions over a network.

Apple credits Alexander Medina, Andrew Vyrros, Darryl Bleau, Jeffrey Davey, Justin Santamaria, Justin Wood and Thomas Devanneaux as the inventors of granted patent 9,078,128 which was originally filed in Q3 2011 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Granted Patent: Power Adapter with Magnetic Rotation Actuator

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to electrical power adapters and in particular to electrical power adapters for use with standard alternating current (AC) power sockets employed in residential and commercial buildings.

More specifically, the invention relates to improved electrical power adapter connectors having retractable prongs that are pivoted from a retracted position in which the retractable prong is positioned adjacent to the adapter housing, to a deployed position in which the retractable prong extends away from the adapter housing, and can be inserted into an electrical outlet.

The magnetic drive mechanism includes a first and second driver magnet spaced a first axial distance apart that interact with first and second driven magnets attached to a rotatable shaft fixed to the rotatable prong

Apple's patent FIG. 7 illustrates a left-side view of magnetic drive mechanism #410 in the second position and retractable earth prong #110 with housing and rotatable shaft removed for clarity. The retractable earth prong is shown in the retracted position and magnetic drive mechanism is in the second position. First driver magnet #415 is displaced from first driven magnet #420. When magnets #415 and #420 are displaced from one another, the second driver magnet has very little magnetic attraction to second driven magnet #420. Below is a photo of the magnetic based adapter in the UK Apple Store.

Apple credits Mathieu Roy, Cesar Villarreal, Jean-Marc Gery and Vikas Sinha as the inventors of granted patent 9,077,093 which was originally filed in Q2 2014 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today

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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 Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 5am to 6pm MST and sporadically over the weekend.