On December 13, Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple has just launched A Powerful New App called 'Freeform' that's designed for Creative Brainstorming and Collaboration on FaceTime Calls." Days later, Apple filed for the 'Freeform' trademark in the U.S. and Hong Kong, China. Apple also filed for a new figurative 'Metal' logo. Metal is Apple's low-level, low-overhead hardware-accelerated 3D graphic and compute shader API. Lastly, Apple filed for the Photonic Engine this week in the U.S.

Trademark: Freeform

While the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published Apple's text-only version of 'Freeform' last week, after Apple introduced Freeform, the reality is that Apple actually filed for the trademark in late November. USPTO didn't get to greenlight the publication of the trademark until Apple made it official. Apple hid their original filing in Liechtenstein in May 25, 2022 under application number 2022-374. Unless you live in  Liechtenstein, you can't get access to the county's database. The image in our cover graphic illustrates both the text-only + figurative logos. This week's trademark filing was for the text-only version.

Apple filed their Freeform trademark in the U.S. under International Class 042 which covers:

"Providing on-line non-downloadable software for facilitating real-time collaboration, for jointly creating, sharing, viewing, displaying, editing, annotating, storing, and distributing photos, images, graphics, documents, presentations, data, videos, and multimedia content, and for communicating via text and video regarding the collaboration process and jointly-created content; providing on-line non-downloadable software for creating, sharing, viewing, displaying, editing, annotating, storing, and distributing photos, images, graphics, documents, presentations, data, videos, and multimedia content; providing on-line non-downloadable software for word processing; cloud computing featuring software for use facilitating realtime collaboration, for jointly creating, sharing, viewing, displaying, editing, annotating, storing, and distributing photos, images, graphics, documents, presentations, data, videos, and multimedia content, and for communicating via text and video regarding the collaboration process and jointly-created content."

Apple filed their Freeform trademark in Hong Kong under International Class 009 which covers:

"Computer software; downloadable computer software for facilitating real-time collaboration, for jointly creating, sharing, viewing, displaying, editing, annotating, storing, and distributing photos, images, graphics, documents, presentations, data, videos, and multimedia content, and for communicating via text and video regarding the collaboration process and jointly-created content; downloadable computer software for creating, sharing, viewing, displaying, editing, annotating, storing, and distributing photos, images, graphics, documents, presentations, data, videos, and multimedia content; downloadable computer programs for word processing."

Trademark: Photonic Engine

Patently Apple posted a trademark report on November 18, 2022 that covered Apple's new iPhone 14 'Photonic Engine' trademark filing in Europe under International Classes 009 and 042. Apple has now filed for this trademark in the U.S. under number 97711433 and limited the International Class or 009. Apple also provided USPTO with a 'Specimen' for the Photonic Engine as presented below.

Apple Specimen: The U.S. Patent Office defines a specimen as being an example of how a company is actually using their trademark in the marketplace with the goods or services in their application. It's what consumers see when they are considering whether to purchase goods or subscribe to services that Apple provides in connection with their trademark.

(Click on image to Greatly Enlarge)

Trademark: Figurative Metal Logo 2

In April 2019, Patently Apple posted a trademark report covering Apple's colored Figurative 'Metal" logo that stemmed from Europe. This week Apple filed for a different Figurative "Metal" logo in Hong Kong, China under application number 306122592 that is Black and White as presented below.

Apple filed their trademark under International Class 009 covering: Application development software; computer software for use as an application programming interface (API) for building software applications; software for processing, transmitting and displaying text, data, images, audio, audio visual content, and other multimedia content.

It should be noted that international trademark classes that Apple files their trademarks under are important as the trademark registration will only protect those classes that have been identified in their original application. In a legal battle, the classes filed for originally could make or break a legal case.