Apple has filed for a new Figurative Trademark for Shazam and granted 11 Design Patents in Europe that remain a Mystery
This week Patently Apple discovered new figurative trademark filings in Hong Kong and the U.S. relating to Shazam. The new design illustrates two stars breaking out of Shazam's traditional circular logo. We also discovered 11 granted design patents in Europe that remain a mystery.
Unlike "patent applications" that provide the public with an abstract, summary and details of an invention, design patents published around the world are limited to only providing the public with design patent figures. No additional specifics of the design are made available.
Design Patents: Mac mini, iPhone 16/16 Pro?
On August seventh Apple was granted 11 design patents under numbers 015068380-0001 to – 0011. Below is a representation of various parts of the first design (only). It illustrates various parts of the granted patent showing Appl as the legal owner, the timeline of the design patent and an area to present a series of designs associated with the first design patent. Here, as noted below, it's left blank. In two places withing the documentation it states "Registered and subject to deferment," meaning to be postponed to a later date. So the graphics are purposely held back by design / per instructions to the patent office.
Considering that there are 11 design patents that each would usually present 4-8 design figures showing different angles of a particular design, we could talking 44 to 88 design figures being held back. This strongly would suggest that the patents either cover the new Mac mini and mini Pro models of the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro. Not only has Apple requested deferment, they also had the part of the patent that describes the nature of the device such as phone/smartphone or computer off the registered patent. In other word – it's to remain a secret until Apple officially introduced the product or products.
Once the iPhone 16 and/or Mac mini devices have been made public, we'll revisit these design patents once again to verify the design figures in this week's revelations. This is the first time that I've come across a "deferment" request.
New Figurative Trademark related to Shazam
In other IP news, Apple filed for a new "figurative" trademark that would appear to be related to Shazam as noted in the partial patent application data below.
Apple filed for this trademark in Hong Kong under application 306630804 covering International Class 009 for "Application development software; downloadable pre-recorded audio, video and multimedia content; computer software for music recognition and identification; computer software for concert and music artist tour information." In their U.S. filing, the information above is under the description for "Goods and Services" and not class 009.
This trademark was also filed in the U.S. under number 98676567 on July 31. Apple filed for this trademark under 009 but with completely different verbiage than their Hong Kong filing as follows:
"Scientific, nautical, surveying, electric, photographic, cinematographic, optical, weighing, measuring, signalling, checking (supervision), life-saving and teaching apparatus and instruments; apparatus for recording, transmission or reproduction of sound or images; magnetic data carriers, recording discs; automatic vending machines and mechanisms for coin-operated apparatus; cash registers, calculating machines, data processing equipment and computers; fire-extinguishing apparatus. - Scientific, nautical, surveying, electric, photographic, cinematographic, optical, weighing, measuring, signalling, checking (supervision), life-saving and teaching apparatus and instruments; apparatus for recording, transmission or reproduction of sound or images; magnetic data carriers, recording discs; automatic vending machines and mechanisms for coin-operated apparatus; cash registers, calculating machines, data processing equipment and computers; fire-extinguishing apparatus.'
Report Update 7:14 a.m. PST: Below is Apple's "Specimen for use of the new Shazam Logo.