Before most of Apple's new product category products ever came to market, there was a patent that was discovered that opened the door and conversation to what could be. That goes for the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch, iWallet/NFC and now the iPad Pro that is likely to be introduced next week if the news handed to an Apple site this week comes to life. And it's also been rumored that Apple may introduce a smartpen or stylus with their new iPad and Apple has a long list of patents on that product as well; all of them ahead of any rumor. And in some cases, like the iPad Pro, the rumors first came by way of supply chain sources well ahead of the curve and the gurus that only chime in at the very end of the cycle.

The first Apple patent on a hybrid notebook or iPad Pro was revealed in April 2013 and an iPad with a keyboard cover surfaced in March 2014. Which way Apple will go with their design is still unknown.

Apple's patent filings never reveal the final look of the product, as noted below, but rather the framework of what could be. Sometimes Apple has a family of patents published years ahead of the end product to work out various components and various concepts.

Out of 150 or more Apple patents that are published by the US Patent Office each week, Patently Apple selectively covers about 5-7% of those that hold the most potential for the future. So when a new product comes to market that was first revealed in patents Apple fans could say they were following the development of a new product well ahead of the news. It's why our blog banner says that we Celebrate Apple's Spirit of Innovation.

So if the iPad Pro comes to life next week, Apple fans that follow Apple's intellectual property news delivered each week will have the added buzz of knowing that they read about this development ahead of the rumor mill.

First iWatch Concept Patent (2013)

First Apple Patent for an iPad Stylus (2009)

The iPhone (a Multifunctional Handheld Device) 2006

One of the first images of what would turn out to be the iPhone was that of a butt ugly concept of a product. It's never about the concept patent drawings but rather the concept. In this classic 2006 patent application we discovered that Apple's proposed multifunctional device could be that of a cell phone; something that die-hard naysayers in the Apple community vowed would never, ever happen. The rest is history.

Next week could mark a new and exciting chapter for the iPad, and yes, it all began as concepts filed in patent applications. While some think about patent applications and granted patents only in terms of being a legal weapon or a defensive move, we've always covered them for the love of understanding what Apple's engineers have been given the task to research and develop; what trends that they're thinking of bringing to the world or a new twist to an old idea.

One of Steve Jobs' favorite quotes was from Wayne Gretzky: "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." This is one of the great aspects of what Apple patents are all about. In the end, it's about the innovation, stupid.

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