On this last granted patent day of the year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 47-amount newly granted patents for Apple. In this particular report we cover Apple inventions relating to a special antenna using sapphire, a new telephoto lens for iDevices, a new OLED invention and others touching on biometrics and face recognition. 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: Antenna on Sapphire Structure

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to electronic devices, and more particularly, to electronic device antennas formed on sapphire structures and methods for forming the antennas on sapphire structures.

By utilizing a sapphire structure to form the antenna of a wireless communication system in an electronic device, the overall size of the antenna may be substantially reduced. That is, as single sapphire structure may be used to form the antenna. By reducing the size of the antenna, the space required for the antenna within the enclosure of the electronic device may also be substantially reduced, and may allow more space within the enclosure for other components of the electronic device (for example, providing additional space for a battery).

Apple's patent FIG. 1A shows an illustrative plane view of an antenna formed on a sapphire structure; FIG. 4 shows an illustrative perspective view of an electronic device utilizing an antenna; and FIG. 5 shows an illustrative cross-sectional plane view of the electronic device of FIG. 4 along line 5-5. The electronic device in FIG. 5 includes an antenna.

Apple's granted patent 9,225,056 was originally filed in Q and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. For more details on this invention, see our original patent report that was published in August, here.

Granted Patent: Small Form Factor Telephoto Camera

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to camera systems and more, specifically to high-resolution, small form factor telephoto camera systems.

Apple's patent FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional illustration of an example embodiment of a compact telephoto camera including a compact telephoto lens system that includes five lens elements with refractive power in which the aperture stop is located between the first and second lens elements. For more on this invention see our original report that we published in April, here.

Apple's granted patent 9,223,118 was originally filed in Q4 2013 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Granted Patent: OLED Displays with Vias

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to electronic devices, and more particularly, to OLED displays for use in electronic devices having vias. Vias may be formed in the substrate layer. The vias may be formed before completion of the display or after completion of the display. The vias may be filled with metal using electroplating or other metal deposition techniques. The vias may be connected to contacts on the rear surface of the display. The vias may be located in active regions of the display or inactive regions of the display. The display may include a top surface emission portion and a bottom surface emission portion.

Apple's patent FIG. 9 is a diagram showing now a blind via may be formed in a display.

Apple's granted patent 9,226,347 was originally filed in Q1 2013 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Other granted patents of minor interest today include one for using face detection and recognition under #9,223,397. This technology is designed to instantly login a user to an iPhone or any Mac, much like the new Windows 10 feature called "Windows Hello." Whether Apple will ever use face recognition separately or in combination with Touch ID in the future is unknown at this time.

A second patent of minor interest today is under #9,224,029 which relates to using Touch ID in a whole new way. Patently Apple covered this invention originally back in December 2014 in more detail. For more on this see our report titled "Apple Invents New Touch ID Virtual Combination Unlock Feature."

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today

Note: In order to see a clearer image of the list above, simply click on the image above to enlarge it. Some browsers may require that you click on the image and then a second click on the image to enlarge it fully.

Side Note: On Christmas Eve we posted a report titled "U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Shut Down due to Massive Power Outage." Finally yesterday USPTO published Apple's patents and patent figures. Today was the first Granted Patent day after their power outage and it played havoc with dates. The initial granted patents list released this morning actually covered September 29, 2015 instead of Dec 29. I posted a full report on the original list this morning only to figure out 5 minutes later that there was a mix-up at the patent office. This report is late due to this mix-up. 

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.