Apple Granted a New Single & Multi-Touch Patent

Apple has received a major Granted Patent that generally relates to electronic devices with touch screen displays, and more particularly, to electronic devices that use one or more finger contacts to move on-screen objects without using a cursor to move the objects. Apple's in-depth touch related patent lists a whopping 36 major points in their summary alone. Apple's newly granted patent could provide Apple legal with added ammunition against current or future iDevice copycats.



Apple's patent FIG. 5A illustrates an overhead view of an exemplary finger in contact with a touch screen display; FIG. 5B illustrates a side view of the finger and the touch screen of FIG. 5A; FIG. 5C illustrates the components of a touch area.

Apple's patent FIG. 13A illustrates translating multiple on-screen objects in a graphical user interface on a touch screen display; FIG. 13B illustrates rotating multiple on-screen objects in a graphical user interface on a touch screen display; FIG. 13D illustrates simultaneously translating and rotating multiple on-screen objects in a graphical user interface on a touch screen display.

Apple credits Jeffrey Bernstein as the sole inventor of granted patent 8,284,170 which was originally filed in Q3 2008. 

Apple Receives Second Granted Patent for a Two-Step Unlock Screen Feature

Today, Apple has received their second Granted Patent relating to user interfaces that employ a two-step security feature for unlocking the home screen of iDevices. Apple's first granted patent related to a dual slider locking approach was issued in June 2012. In February of this year, Apple won a patent dispute with Motorola relating to their initial patented unlock feature.

Apple's granted patent states that a method of controlling a device with a touch-sensitive display includes: displaying first and second images on the touch-sensitive display while the device is in a user-interface lock state; detecting contact with the touch-sensitive display; transitioning the device to a first active state corresponding to the first image if the detected contact corresponds to a predefined gesture with respect to the first image; and transitioning the device to a second active state distinct from the first active state if the detected contact corresponds to a predefined gesture with respect to the second image.

Apple credits Senior VP of iPhone Software Scott Forstall and team members Imran Chaudhri Imran, Bas Ording, Freddy Anzures, Marcel Van Os and Greg Christie as the inventors of this patent which was originally filed under application 13/204,572 in Q3 2011. The patent's history goes back to 2005.

Apple Received 3 Granted Design Patents Today

Apple credits Angela Suarez for the icon design in granted patent D668,674 noted above. The other designs could be found under patent numbers D668,666 and D668,672.

First Patent Round-Up

Over and above the granted patents that were specifically reported on today, we present you with links to 11 additional granted patents in our first granted patent round-up as follows:

8,285,901 - Communication between an accessory and a media player using an extended interface lingo

8,285,851 - Pairing a media server and a media client. This relates to Apple TV.

8,286,198 - Application programming interfaces for data parallel computing on multiple processors

8,286,196 - Parallel runtime execution on multiple processors. Apple's patent relates generally to data parallel computing. More particularly, this invention relates to data parallel runtime execution across both CPUs (Central Processing Units) and GPUs (Graphical Processing Units).

8,286,127 - Mirrored file system

8,286,081 - Editing and saving key-indexed geometries in media editing applications

8,285,989 - Establishing a secured communication session

8,285,949 - Secure software installation

8,285,947 - Store hit load predictor

8,285,937 - Fused store exclusive/memory barrier operation

8,285,860 - Efficient service discovery for peer-to-peer networking devices

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. About Comments: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments.