Apple filed for the 'Smart Keyboard' trademark back in late December 2015 under application number 868575877. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied Apple's application and on January 7, 2020 sent Apple a "Final Action" Denial notice that in-part is presented below. It was a lengthy notice with 87 attachments.

In October 2022, Apple sued over the trademark being rejected and stated in their complaint in a Virginia Federal Court that "The PTO erred when it found that "Smart Keyboard" is a generic phrase instead of a distinctive name that customers would associate with Apple's accessory.

We're now learning that Apple and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office told a Virginia federal court on Thursday that they have settled Apple's lawsuit challenging the office's rejection of its application for a federal trademark covering the term "Smart Keyboard."

The two sides said in a joint filing that they had resolved the dispute in principle. Representatives for Apple and the PTO did not immediately respond to requests for comment or more information on the settlement.

The PTO said again in an answer to Apple's complaint in January that "Smart Keyboard" is a generic term and ineligible for a federal trademark. For more on this read the full Reuters report.

For the record, Apple was granted a registered trademark for "iPad Pro Smart Keyboard" in December 2018 as noted in-part in the certificate image below. Obviously USPTO's objection was for Apple taking two known English words and trying to trademark them. When in context to "iPad Pro," the trademark was approved.  

At the end of the day, you have to wonder what their joint statement meant in stating that the dispute was resolved in principle. Knowing Apple, the USPTO will be legally bound to never discuss the details of the agreement. That's really too bad.