Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple 4 design patents covering HomePod, an Apple Store "Room with Retail Arrangement" and more.

Unlike "patent applications," design patents only reveal patent figures of the design as noted below without details of any kind.

Design Patent: Room with Retail Arrangement

Inventors of Design Patent D812,771: Cully; Rebecca M. (Moss Beach, CA), Wynn; Jennifer Ross (San Francisco, CA), Green; Christopher M. (Woodside, CA), Peak; Christopher Daniel (Oakland, CA), Peschel; David Kahl (San Carlos, CA), Behling; Stefan (London, GB), Sherman; James (London, GB), Bakas; Vasileios (London, GB).

Design Patent: Electronic Device (HomePod)

Apple's HomePod design patent was interestingly filed in December 2016. Apple was to originally ship them in time for Christmas. After a painful delay, Apple began shipping them to customers in Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. on February 9th.

It's still unknown as to when Apple's HomePod will be available in other markets. For a leading tech company that's as wealthy as they are, it's both amazing and disappointing that they weren't able to roll out their HomePod on time and to more countries in round one. Then again, it's better to ship it late than rush it to market with problems. Apple will work out the HomePod's initial problems and perhaps even launch version 2 for Christmas 2018 along with a rumored smaller, cheaper model.

Inventors of Design Patent D812,604: Akana; Jody (San Francisco, CA), Anderson; Molly (San Francisco, CA), Andre; Bartley K. (Palo Alto, CA), Aoyagi; Shota (San Francisco, CA), Ashcroft; Anthony Michael (San Francisco, CA), Bataille; Marine C. (San Francisco, CA), Bataillou; Jeremy (San Francisco, CA), De Iuliis; Daniele (San Francisco, CA), Diebel; Markus (San Francisco, CA), Hankey; M. Evans (San Francisco, CA), Hoenig; Julian (San Francisco, CA), Howarth; Richard P. (San Francisco, CA), Ive; Jonathan P. (San Francisco, CA), Jaede; Julian (San Francisco, CA), Kerr; Duncan Robert (San Francisco, CA), Newson; Marc A. (London, GB), Russell-Clarke; Peter (San Francisco, CA), Shaffer; Benjamin Andrew (San Jose, CA), Silvanto; Mikael (San Francisco, CA), Stringer; Christopher J. (Woodside, CA), Tan; Sung-Ho (San Francisco, CA), Tissandier; Clement (San Francisco, CA), Whang; Eugene Antony (San Francisco, CA), Zorkendorfer; Rico (San Francisco, CA).

Patently Apple posted an IP report on February 19th titled "The Hong Kong Patent Office Grants Apple Seven HomePod Design Patents."

Design Patent: MacBook

Apple's new, redesigned MacBook line was launched on March 9, 2015. Available in silver, gold or space grey, it is thinner than the MacBook Air and removes the traditional MagSafe charging port (along with all other ports, except the headphone jack) in favor of the multi-purpose USB-C port. It also features a Retina display. On April 19, 2016, Apple updated the 12-inch Retina MacBook with new sixth-generation Intel Core M processors, longer battery life and a rose gold option. This design patent was filed in 2016 and published today by USPTO.

Inventors of Design Patent D812,604:     Akana; Jody (San Francisco, CA), Andre; Bartley K. (Palo Alto, CA), Aoyagi; Shota (San Francisco, CA), Ashcroft; Anthony Michael (San Francisco, CA), Bataillou; Jeremy (San Francisco, CA), Coster; Daniel J. (San Francisco, CA), De Iuliis; Daniele (San Francisco, CA), Hankey; M. Evans (San Francisco, CA), Hoenig; Julian (San Francisco, CA), Howarth; Richard P. (San Francisco, CA), Ive; Jonathan P. (San Francisco, CA), Kerr; Duncan Robert (San Francisco, CA), Rohrbach; Matthew Dean (San Francisco, CA), Russell-Clarke; Peter (San Francisco, CA), Shaffer; Benjamin Andrew (San Jose, CA), Silvanto; Mikael (San Francisco, CA), Stringer; Christopher J. (Woodside, CA), Whang; Eugene Antony (San Francisco, CA), Zorkendorfer; Rico (San Francisco, CA)

Design Patent: Charger

Inventors for Design Patent D812,563: Akana; Jody (San Francisco, CA), Anderson; Molly (San Francisco, CA), Andre; Bartley K. (Palo Alto, CA), Aoyagi; Shota (San Francisco, CA), Ashcroft; Anthony Michael (San Francisco, CA), Bataillou; Jeremy (San Francisco, CA), Coster; Daniel J. (San Francisco, CA), De Iuliis; Daniele (San Francisco, CA), Hankey; M. Evans (San Francisco, CA), Hoenig; Julian (San Francisco, CA), Howarth; Richard P. (San Francisco, CA), Ive; Jonathan P. (San Francisco, CA), Kerr; Duncan Robert (San Francisco, CA), Newson; Marc A. (London, GB), Rohrbach; Matthew Dean (San Francisco, CA), Russell-Clarke; Peter (San Francisco, CA), Shaffer; Benjamin Andrew (San Jose, CA), Silvanto; Mikael (San Francisco, CA), Stringer; Christopher J. (Woodside, CA), Tissandier; Clement (San Francisco, CA), Whang; Eugene Antony (San Francisco, CA), Zorkendorfer; Rico (San Francisco, CA)

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