The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 26 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's granted patent for an Apple Pencil disabling system for iPad and iPhone as noted in our cover graphic. Apple was also granted a patent for the Smart Connector for the iPad Pro's smart cover. Apple also gained a design win for their lightning connector. 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: Disabling Apple Pencil to prevent worn tip Performance Degradation and Screen Damage

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to Apple Pencil for use with touch-sensitive devices and, more specifically, to tracking stylus tip wear to prevent performance degradation and screen damage. As shown below, Apple chose to illustrate their invention used on an iPhone, though it's designed to work with an iPad Pro as well.

Apple's patent FIG. 9 noted above illustrates an example process for tracking one or more stylus parameters and using stylus wear to indicate to a user to replace the stylus tip; FIG. 10A above and 10B below illustrate example notifications that can be displayed on the screen of a touch-sensitive device based on the parameter tracking according to examples of the disclosure.

Patently Apple covered this invention first as original patent filing posted in August 2017. Check it out for more details, here. Apple's granted patent 9,904,379 was originally filed in Q1 2016 and published today as a granted patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Granted Patent: Smart Connector

We're aware of the iPad cover using one style of magnet to stay attached to the iPad and we're equally aware that for the iPad Pro Apple uses a secondary style of magnets called the Smart Connector to attach the iPad Pro to the associated Smart Keyboard. Patent FIG. 7C noted above illustrates a family of iDevice covers using the Smart Connector.

Apple's granted patent 9,905,964 officially titled "Magnetically Aligned Accessory to device Connections" was originally filed in Q2 2016 just as the iPad Pro was being launched.

Apple Wins Design Patent for Lightning Connector

Apple was granted a design patent today for their lightning connector under D811, 346 as noted below.

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.