The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 45 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we briefly cover three Apple inventions; EarPods, Camouflaged Openings and methods for forming shield materials for the Apple Watch wireless charging coil. 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: Methods for Forming Shield Materials onto Inductive Coils

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to the Apple Watch's electromagnetic power transfer systems, and in particular to systems and methods for shielding electromagnetic coils for improved inductive power transfer.

Apple's patent FIG. 2A noted below depicts a top perspective view of an example unshielded electromagnetic coil; FIG. 2B depicts a bottom perspective view of the example electromagnetic coil of FIG. 2A shielded on three sides; FIG. 2C depicts a top perspective view of an example electromagnetic coil of FIG. 2A.

Apple's granted patent 9,460,846 was originally filed in June 2014 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. To review the details of this invention click here.

Granted Patent: Methodology for Determining an Improved Form of Headphones (EarPods)

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to the creation of EarPods. More specifically, the invention covers a methodology for determining the form for a headphone part using a representative model. Using data defining an ear model, the model is oriented within a coordinate system, with a focus on the alignment of one or more areas of the ear. A representative model is determined from a plurality of oriented ear models, where the representative model is a representation for a volume determined to be common to at least two oriented ear models. The size and shape of the headphone part is determined based upon the representative model.

Apple's patent FIG. 5A noted above is an exemplary earphone designed using a representative model; FIG. 5B is an exemplary earphone designed using a representative model shown within an ear.

Apple's granted patent 9,460,238 was originally filed in Q1 2013 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. For more details, click here.

Granted Patent: Camouflaged Openings in Device Housings

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to techniques and apparatus for providing one or more holes in a housing for an electronic device. The one or more holes in the housing can be used to facilitate visual indicators. A light source can be controlled to provide light into a hole and thus emit light from the hole. When the light source is not providing light to the hole, the hole can be visually disguised (e.g., camouflaged) so it blends with the surrounding portions of the housing.

A good example of this is Apple's Magic Keyboard. When the power is off, you can't see where the indicator light is as it blends into the design and color scheme.

Apple's granted patent 9,459,661 was originally filed in Q2 2013 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. For more details, click here

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. Those using abusive language or behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.