The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 36 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's second granted patent for touch and hover sensing displays. Apple has been working on hover sensing technology since 2009. Their first granted patent was issued in February of this year. That patent filing surfaced in 2011. With two major patent wins for this technology this year, will Apple be adding this feature alongside 3D Touch anytime soon? Only time will tell. 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: Touch and Hover Sensing

Apple's newly granted patent generally relates to touch and hover sensing, and in particular, to improved capacitive touch and hover sensing. Hover sensing may also be improved using methods to detect a hover position of an object outside of a space directly above the touch surface. Other improvements relate to the joint operation of touch and hover sensing, such as determining when and how to perform touch sensing, hover sensing, both touch and hover sensing, or neither.

Apple's patent FIG. 5 illustrates an object outside of a space directly above an example touch screen.

Apple's patent FIG. 9 noted above illustrates an example touch and hover sensing system.

Apple's granted patent 9,323,398 was originally filed in Q3 2009 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Apple Granted a Design Patent for iPad with Case

Apple was granted design patent D754,654 today titled 'Portable display device with Case.'

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.