The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 42 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's iPad Pro Smart Keyboard, design patents for an Apple Store monitor and Apple's iPhone lightning dock. 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: Smart Keyboard with Fabric Signal Path Structures

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to the iPad Pro's Smart Keyboard and more particularly, to flexible signal path structures built into its fabric to carry electrical signals.

Technically speaking, the patent covers an electronic device such as a cover for a portable device provided with a body having hinge portions or other tight radius flex lines. The hinge portions may allow the body to bend about one or more bend axes. For example, sections of the cover may be folded along the bend axes to create a support for the portable device. The portable device may be a tablet computer or other device without a keyboard. A keyboard for providing input to the portable device may be formed in the cover.

The keyboard may be mounted at one end of the cover and a connector that mates with the portable device may be mounted at an opposing end of the cover. A flexible fabric signal path structure may be used to route signals between the keyboard and the connector. The flexible fabric signal path structure may overlap the bend axes of the body and may accommodate bending along the bend axes.

The flexible fabric signal path structure may be formed from metal traces on a flexible fabric substrate. At one end of the cover, the flexible fabric signal path structure may be coupled to a printed circuit in the keyboard using conductive adhesive. At the opposing end of the cover, the metal traces on the flexible fabric substrate may be coupled to the connector.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative tablet (iPad) mated with an illustrative tablet computer cover (smart keyboard); FIG. 11 is a diagram of an illustrative fabric having conductive strands that form a signal path; FIGS. 17 and 18 are flow charts of illustrative steps involved in forming flexible fabric signal path structures in accordance with embodiments.

Apple's granted patent 9,883,583 was originally filed in Q3 2015 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.  

Apple's Granted Design Patents

Apple was granted three design patents today. The two noted in the graphic below cover an Apple Store Monitor and an iPhone Lightning Charger. One of the Inventors of the Monitor is Bill Bergeron-Mirsky R&D Manager, Retail Design. The third design patent was for Apple's now defunct iPod nano.

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today

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.