The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 53 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. Starting things off, we know that Apple has more than a dozen solar power related patents on record and today they've been granted yet another one covering solar power tracking techniques. Our report also covers a granted patent relating to a future docking system that will come with a flexible connector (e.g. Lighting or USB Type-C). 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: Solar Powered Devices

Apple's newly granted patent titled "Methods and apparatuses for operating devices with solar power" covers their invention relating to Solar power tracking techniques.

In one aspect of the invention, a solar power tracking apparatus includes, but is not limited to, a voltage converter and a controller coupled to the voltage converter. The voltage converter includes an input capable of being coupled to a solar power source and an output capable of being coupled to an electronic load, such as, for example, a portable electronic device. The voltage converter is configured to monitor or detect an amount of power drawn by the electronic load at the output of the voltage converter. In response to the monitored power drawn, the controller is configured to control the voltage converter to reduce amount of power to be drawn subsequently if the monitored amount of power exceeds a predetermined threshold. As a result, the output voltage from the solar power source is maintained within a predetermined range.

Apple's granted patent 9,231,435 was originally filed in Q3 2011 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Granted Patent: Dock with Flexible Connector

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to a docking station for an electronic device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a docking station having a compliant connector mount (e.g. Lightning or USB Type-C) that is more durable and flexible.

Patently Apple originally covered this invention as a patent application report back in March 2014. See that report for more details and graphics. Apple's granted patent 9,229,487 was filed in 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.