The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple 42 newly granted patents today. Our report covers two patent wins for smart fabrics related to the iPad Pro Smart Keyboard Folio and Memoji creation. Our report also covers a design patent for Apple Watch. We wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

Smart Fabrics Related to Smart Keyboard Folio

Apple has been granted patent #10,362,670 covering the fabric signal path structures integrated into Apple's Smart Keyboard Folio.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 below is a cross-sectional side view of the iPad Pro mated with an illustrative Smart Keyboard Folio; FIG. 17 is a flow chart of illustrative steps involved in forming flexible fabric signal path structures.

Technically speaking, Apple originally described their invention this way: "An electronic device such as a cover for a portable device may be provided with a body having hinge portions or other tight radius flex lines. The hinge portions may allow the body to bend about one or more bend axes. For example, sections of the cover may be folded along the bend axes to create a support for the portable device. The portable device may be a tablet computer or other device without a keyboard. A keyboard for providing input to the portable device may be formed in the cover.

The keyboard may be mounted at one end of the cover and a connector that mates with the portable device may be mounted at an opposing end of the cover. A flexible fabric signal path structure may be used to route signals between the keyboard and the connector. The flexible fabric signal path structure may overlap the bend axes of the body and may accommodate bending along the bend axes.

A flexible fabric signal path structure may be formed from metal traces on a flexible fabric substrate. At one end of the cover, the flexible fabric signal path structure may be coupled to a printed circuit in the keyboard using conductive adhesive. At the opposing end of the cover, the metal traces on the flexible fabric substrate may be coupled to the connector."

You could review the patent in full here.

Memoji Creation

Apple has been granted patent #10,362,219 that covers the creation of Memoji in Apple's Messages. Xiaomi recently copied Apple's Memoji feature and even the branding with Apple owning the trademark in Hong Kong. Xiaomi's Mimoji would be considered too close a trademark to be valid. Now Apple has won a patent for Memoji creation. It's unlikely that Apple will sue, though you'd sure love to see Apple do just that to get this company to stop ripping off popular iPhone features.

Apple states that their invention covers a technique on iPhones (devices) with faster, more efficient methods and interfaces for avatar creation and editing. Such methods and interfaces optionally complement or replace other methods for avatar creation and editing. Such methods and interfaces reduce the cognitive burden on a user and produce a more efficient human-machine interface. For battery-operated computing devices, such methods and interfaces conserve power and increase the time between battery charges. For more details, see Apple's granted patent here.

Key Design Patent Issued Today

Apple's key granted design patent issued today was for Apple Watch as presented in-part below.

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today

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