As we enter Christmas week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published the smallest number of patents granted to Apple all year as expected with only 23. In this particular report we cover Apple's invention regarding an advanced ceiling system that first debuted in China this year. We wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

Apple Granted a Patent for a Custom Ceiling System 

In March of this year Apple was granted two design patents for their Apple Store in Zhongjie Joy City, China. By now it's no secret that Apple, and Jony Ive in particular, loves getting involved in every aspect of designing their retail stores including next-gen product tables and even for the advanced ceiling structures found in the Apple Store in Zhongjie China that we first reported on this past summer. This past Sunday, the CBS '60 Minutes' news show highlighted a segment dedicated to Apple's focus on designing every aspect of their Apple Stores with Angela Ahrendts, Apple's Senior VP retail and online stores.

Today, the U.S. Patent Office granted Apple a patent for their advanced ceiling system under patent 9,217,247.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 presented below illustrates a front perspective view of rooms including a ceiling system and in FIG. 8 we're able to see a perspective view of a section of a trough that includes a camera.

Apple's granted patent was originally filed in Q1 2014 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Apple was also granted their second patent (9,218,731) of the year for a smoke detector that we first covered back in September along with a second Mac Pro patent (9,218,028) for its unique housing. We covered Apple's first granted patent for this on December eighth.

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.

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.