Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a continuation patent application from Apple that is in context with their previously granted patent which we covered back in December 2015 titled "Apple Granted a Patent for a Business App that will use Apple Pencil and new Pie Chart UI." Although a competitor's report today is blindly claiming that this is a new invention from Apple, it is not. Apple instead is refining their already granted patent to cover key aspects of the invention not protected before. The good news is that continuation patents usually indicate that the invention is still an ongoing and viable project.

In today's continuation patent Apple is securing new patent claims to protect their invention in new ways. It also goes to show us new or key aspects of the invention that they want to emphasize. 

For instance, in the 2015 granted patent Apple's claims were mainly focused on all-things related to "collaboration" whereas today's update or continuation patent mainly focuses on claims relating to the functionality of a new radial or pie-chart menu system.

One of the key patent points that Apple wants to protect is a new button for Apple Pencil that will open a radial or pie-chart menu. The button will also act like a mouse with single and/or double click actions. Apple also has alternative methods of calling up a menu without a button. Apple's new menu system for Apple Pencil would allow it to go beyond art apps and support business applications like Microsoft's Office suite and beyond. It would put the Pro into high gear for the iPad Pro going forward.

For now, the main extended patent claims for this invention are noted below. 

Claim 1: A method, comprising: at an electronic device with a touch-sensitive display: detecting a stylus input at a point on the touch-sensitive display that corresponds to content displayed on the touch-sensitive display; while the stylus continues to be detected at the point on the touch-sensitive surface, continuing to detect the stylus input; and in response to the continued detection of the stylus input: in accordance with a determination that the stylus input includes a menu display input, displaying a menu proximate to the point on the touch-sensitive display; and in accordance with a determination that the stylus input does not include the menu display input, preparing to perform a content manipulation operation with the content instead of displaying a menu proximate to the point on the touch-sensitive display.

Claim 2: The method of claim 1, wherein the menu display input is a press of a button on the stylus.

Claim 4: The method of claim 1, wherein the menu display input includes a predetermined number of repetitions of an input in which the pressure of the stylus increases on the touch-sensitive display and then decreases.

Claim 5: The method of claim 1, including, while displaying the menu, receiving an input on a respective menu item of a plurality of displayed menu items in the menu, and in response to the input, displaying a sub-menu that corresponds to the respective menu item.

Claim 6: The method of claim 5, wherein, when the menu is displayed curving in a first direction, the sub-menu is displayed curving in the first direction.

Claim 7: The method of claim 5, wherein the sub-menu is displayed within a reachable area relative to the menu.

Claim 8: The method of claim 5, wherein the sub-menu is displayed below the respective menu item.

Claim 11: The method of claim 10, including, while scrolling the portion of the menu, maintaining a portion of the menu stationary without scrolling.

Claim 12: An electronic device, comprising: a touch-sensitive display: a stylus; one or more processors; and memory storing one or more programs, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to perform operations including: detecting a stylus input, made using the stylus, at a point on the touch-sensitive display that corresponds to content displayed on the touch-sensitive display; while the stylus continues to be detected at the point on the touch-sensitive surface, continuing to detect the stylus input; and in response to the continued detection of the stylus input: in accordance with a determination that the stylus input includes a menu display input, displaying a menu proximate to the point on the touch-sensitive display; and in accordance with a determination that the stylus input does not include the menu display input, preparing to perform a content manipulation operation with the content instead of displaying a menu proximate to the point on the touch-sensitive display.

Claim 13: The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the stylus includes a button, and the menu display input is a press of the button on the stylus.

Claim 17: The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the menu display input includes a predetermined number of repetitions of an input in which the pressure of the stylus increases on the touch-sensitive display and then decreases.

Adding a button to Apple Pencil could open up new options for professional usage as it acts like a mouse to a certain degree which most people know how to use to open menus and so forth. This will be a lot more useful to everyone in contrast to Microsoft's Surface Dial that may work with a few creative apps.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman had reported back in August 2016 that Apple Pencil would work with a larger array of apps on the iPad in 2017. If this indeed pans out, then this is where Apple Pencil's new radial or pie-chart menu system will likely come into play.

Apple does offer alternative methods of calling up the new radial or pie-chart menus and they may indeed choose this alternative so as to keep the Apple Pencil simple in appearance. For instance, they could choose to use a double tap on the display with the Apple Pencil tip to call up the menu. The idea of course is to have the menu open wherever your pencil is resting rather than having to go to the top of a screen to choose a menu from a traditional option's bar or ribbon.

Apple's patent application 20170097746 was filed back in Q4 2016. You could check out the many patent figures relating to the new menu functions here. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.

One last point: The patent's history actually goes all the way back to 2008, way before the iPad came to market. To hide Apple's intent at the time, the patent references the use of pen in context with a "tabletop" device along with whiteboards. Now that we have the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, the principles of this invention can now extend through to tablets.

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