Apple Wins Multiple Design Patents for MacBook Air, iPhone & More
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 14 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today and it's Apple's design related patents which won the day. While we cover Apple's four design wins this morning, we also list a number of other delectable delights for the techies amongst us who might be interested in the details behind Apple's H.264/AVC coder or Apple's Motion program or perhaps Apple's acceleration-based theft detection system for portables.
Apple Granted Multiple Design Patents
It was certainly a big design patent day for Apple who was granted design wins for their MacBook Air, iPhone 3G Cover, Apple Remote and even their Battery Charger. Beyond design images and credits, Apple doesn't provide much information in the way of details.
MacBook Air: Apple credits VP Industrial Design Jonathan Ive and team members Jody Akana, Bartley Andre, Jeremy Bataillou, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Evans Hankey, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas Satzger, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer as the inventors of Granted Patent D642,172, originally filed in Q4 2010.
Copycats Beware: Considering that Apple is challenging Samsung in court for being an iPhone copycat designer, you have to wonder if Asus should begin shying away from being a blazen MacBook Air copycat designer now that Apple has been granted an important design win on this front today. I guess time will tell.
iPhone 3G Cover: Apple credits VP Industrial Design Jonathan Ive and team members, Bartley Andre, Jeremy Bataillou, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Evans Hankey, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas Satzger, Calvin Seid, Vincent Keane, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer as the inventors of Granted Patent D642,169, originally filed in Q3 2010.
Apple Remote: Apple credits VP Industrial Design Jonathan Ive and team members Jody Akana, Bartley Andre, Jeremy Bataillou, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Evans Hankey, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas Satzger, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer as the inventors of Granted Patent D642,161, originally filed in Q3 2010.
Apple Battery Charger: Apple credits VP Industrial Design Jonathan Ive and team members Jody Akana, Bartley Andre, Jeremy Bataillou, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Evans Hankey, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas Satzger, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer as the inventors of Granted Patent D641,693, originally filed in Q3 2010.
The literature at the Apple Store states that "the reusable batteries are exceptional at holding a charge." I'd have to vehemently disagree with that statement!
Other Granted Patents Published Today
Granted Patent 7,987,427 - Graphical editor for program files: Apple's patent generally relates to graphical user interfaces for computer systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and systems for creating and editing program code which governs the presentation of user guidance information. Believe it or not, this patent originally dates all the way back to 1999.
Granted Patent 7,987,381 - Cyclemaster synchronization in a distributed bridge: Apple's invention relates broadly to synchronizing devices in communication with each other over a serial bus connection. Specifically, the present invention relates to synchronizing cyclemasters across a distributed bridge architecture in a IEEE 1394-compliant network.
Granted Patent 7,986,840 - Tracking workflow in manipulating media items: This patent relates to Apple's Motion.
Granted Patent 7,986,933 - Method and system for wireless communications between base and mobile stations
Granted Patent 7,987,378 - Automatic power-off of Bluetooth device from linked device
Granted Patent 7,986,731 - H.264/AVC coder incorporating rate and quality controller
Granted Patent 7,986,568 - Interleaving charge pumps for programmable memories
Granted Patent 7,986,233 - Acceleration-based theft detection system for portable electronic devices
Granted Patent 7,986,193 - Noise reduction within an electronic device using automatic frequency modulation
Granted Patent 7,986,313 - Analog boundary scanning based on stray capacitance: Apple's invention relates to self testing in an electronic touch based device, and more particularly, to testing whether various modules are properly interconnected in an electronic device.
Granted Patent 7,985,935 - Bottom Actuated Switch: this is primarily used on Apple's iPod family.
Notice: 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.
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Presumably see Granted Patent 7,987,378 - Automatic power-off of Bluetooth device from linked device when the BCM4330 iPhone 5 comes out. So you can make the iPhone tell the links sensors to shut down (or have that command as part of the app - basically go to sleep (and maybe awaken?)via software API.
Posted by: Tom | July 26, 2011 at 01:28 PM