MacRumors

Following our report yesterday about Apple expanding its trademark protection to use the "Apple" name in association with jewelry and watches in a number of countries, MacRumors has discovered that Apple may be quietly continuing to pursue trademarks on the "iWatch" name itself.

Evidence of Apple's interest in the iWatch name surfaced last June as the company began registering for trademarks on the "iWatch" name in a number of countries. Several major countries including the United States were not included in that list, and it was unclear whether Apple was holding off due to conflicts with pending trademark applications in those countries or if there were other issues in play.

At the time, reports mentioned several of those conflicting applications in the United States, but we now believe that one of those applications may in fact be Apple itself operating in disguise using a shell company by the name of Brightflash USA LLC. While MacRumors has yet to discover a smoking gun linking Apple to Brightflash, there are several pieces of circumstantial evidence pointing in that direction, thereby suggesting that Apple is indeed continuing to quietly lay the groundwork for an iWatch launch.

- Timing: Brightflash filed its iWatch trademark application in the United States on June 5, 2013, alongside the surge of applications by Apple in other countries during the span of June 3-5. While it is possible that the timing is a coincidence or the result of a separate company moving extremely quickly to apply for the mark after news of Apple's applications in other countries started breaking on June 5, this would appear to be unlikely.

- Concealed company structure and location: Brightflash is registered in Delaware, a common location for incorporation due to the state's business-friendly laws. According to state records, Brightflash was formed on June 27, 2012 and the company uses the Corporation Trust Center in Wilmington, Delaware as its address. That building serves as the home of hundreds of thousands of companies, streamlining the process of locating in Delaware and providing a level of anonymity for companies registering using the firm's services.

- Few leads on company representatives: Efforts to determine Brightflash's executives and representatives have proven difficult as well, with the initial trademark application using attorney John Sullivan at the same Corporation Trust Center address. Last month, Brightflash filed a change of attorney form with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office listing a David Harris also at that address, with that document signed by a manager "J. Yori". It is possible that this is Joan Yori, an executive with Stewart Management Company, a firm offering services for establishing so-called special purpose entities.

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- Legal links from Ecuador: As we noted yesterday, Apple filed for a trademark on the "Apple" name in Class 14 (jewelry and watches) in Ecuador last December, and the attorney who facilitated that application was Alejandro Ponce Martinez, a principal attorney with Quevedo & Ponce in Quito. Ponce has helped Apple with a number of other trademark applications, including recent filings for iOS 7 icons and iPad Air, and just weeks prior to the Apple jewelry filing he helped Brightflash file its application (PDF: page 164) for the "iWatch" mark.

In an initial response to Brightflash's U.S. application for the iWatch trademark, the examiner cited several prior pending applications from other firms that would potentially be confusing with Brightflash's desired usage. As a result, Brightflash late last month filed its own response requesting that its application be put on hold until the other pending applications were either granted or abandoned. Last week, the patent examiner issued a letter granting the suspension of Brightflash's application for the time being. If Brightflash is indeed Apple, the company would very likely make an effort to acquire the rights to any of the other trademarks if they are granted.

Brightflash continues to file trademark applications in other countries, including Australia and Macau. And just last month, United Kingdom and Denmark were added to the list, indicating that the firm is indeed still interested in protecting the iWatch name. As noted by French site Consomac [Google Translate], Brightflash is pursuing registration of the iWatch name in at least four dozen countries around the world.

Brightflash is also attempting to trademark the "Brightflash" name itself in a number of countries, and it is unclear whether this is simply part of the process of pursuing the iWatch mark or if there is an additional feature or product that could use the Brightflash name.

In the background of any efforts by Brightflash or Apple to secure a U.S. trademark on the iWatch name is a years-long battle between Swiss watchmaker Swatch and New York firm M.Z. Berger. MZB applied for a U.S. trademark on the iWatch name back in July 2007 and the application was nearly approved before Swatch opposed the mark on two fronts: potential confusion with the Swatch brand and a lack of intent by MZB to actually use the iWatch name.

An appeals board has ruled that MZB should not be awarded the trademark on the basis that there is no evidence of MZB's intent to use the iWatch name at the time of filing, although Swatch's claim of potential confusion was not found to be warranted. Both parties appealed the respective decisions against them late last year, and the case remains unresolved.

Apple's potential use of Brightflash as a shell company to hide its efforts to protect intellectual property would certainly not be the first time the company has engaged in such tactics. Last November, the company created an entity by the name of CarPlay Enterprises to file a U.S. trademark application on the term "CarPlay", which last month became the new name for the previously named iOS in the Car feature in iOS 7.1.

In an earlier example leading up to the launch of the iPad, Apple used a shell company by the name of Slate Computing to protect "iSlate" and "MagicSlate" while using a separate firm under the name IP Application Development to secure the "iPad" name.

According to Taiwan's Industrial and Commercial Times [Google Translate, via G for Games] Apple's larger 5.5-inch iPhone 6 has been delayed and will launch in 2015. The report notes that the company is struggling with finding a sufficient battery that measures 2 mm or less to fit in the device's "very thin" profile.

The report also notes that Apple suppliers are referring to the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 as the "iPhone Air", which has not been finalized as an official name for the device. If the claims are true, however, an iPhone Air would join Apple's MacBook Air and recently released iPad Air in carrying a similar name and delivering a product with a slim chassis.

Past reports have indicated that Apple's 4.7-inch iPhone 6 will launch first this fall, and have shared similar details about the 5.5-inch version being delayed due to production issues. A report from Reuters last month noted that Apple was having issues with in-cell production technology in the 5.5-inch version's display, with Japan Display, LG Display, and Sharp set to produce screens for the device.

In addition to a larger screen and thinner design, Apple's next-generation iPhone is expected to include a new A8 processor, Touch ID fingerprint sensor, and an upgraded camera featuring optical image stabilization. Apple is also said to be negotiating with carriers to increase the price of the iPhone 6 by $100.

Apple is honoring Earth Day in a new ad found on newspapers across the UK that appears to also include a jab at rival Samsung, reports CNET.

The ad, which comes with a headline stating "There are some ideas we want everyone to copy," includes two paragraphs that allude to the company's ongoing patent trial with Samsung. Apple notes that there is "one area" where the company "encourages others" to imitate, calling for initiatives that are similar to its recent environmental efforts.

There's one area where we actually encourage others to imitate us. Because when everyone makes the environment a priority, we all benefit. We'd be more than happy to see every data centre fuelled by 100% renewable energy sources. And we eagerly await the day when every product is made without the harmful toxins we have removed from ours.

Of course we know we can continue to do better. We've set some pretty ambitious goals for reducing our impact on climate change, making our products with greener materials and conserving our planet's limited resources. So the next time we come across a great idea that can help leave the world better than we found it, we look forward to sharing it.

Apple and Samsung are currently in their second legal battle over accusations of patent infringement, with the former requesting $2 billion in damages from the latter. In its defense, Samsung stated that it only owes Apple $40 million, as the trial is expected to conclude and head into jury deliberations sometime this week.

The ad is one part of Apple's "Better" environmental campaign launched yesterday ahead of today's Earth Day event, which included a video about the ecological efforts of its Apple Campus 2 project and the expansion of its recycling program to include all products at its stores. Apple will be updating its store logos with green leaf accents and encouraging its employees to wear commemorative green shirts, as an event at its headquarters in Cupertino, California is also planned.

Update: The newspaper ad is also appearing in Australia, and presumably other countries as well.

Apple will now begin accepting old products for recycling at all of its retail stores worldwide, reports The Associated Press. While the company has had a recycling program for quite some time, the terms for trading in a product would vary by device category.

For instance, those looking to trade in a Mac or iPad for recycling were limited to filling out an online form and shipping it with a prepaid label, while those looking to drop off an iPhone or iPod could bring it into an Apple Retail Store or ship it to a recycling center.

Now, customers are welcome to bring in all products to any of its retail locations, where the company will recycle them for free. While all devices will be accepted for recycling at no charge, those who bring in products that are in fair condition will also receive a store gift card.

Apple made changes to its recycling program in 2011, expanding the program to include more devices and older computers. Last year, Apple also introduced an iPhone trade-in program that allowed customers to trade in a device for a gift card that could be used toward the purchase of a new iPhone, which has since expanded to multiple countries.

The move comes as Apple launched its "Better" environmental campaign yesterday ahead of Earth Day, which included a video detailing the environmental efforts of its Apple Campus 2 project. Apple will celebrate Earth Day at its retail locations around the world by giving its logos green leaves and having its employees wear special green shirts. The company will also reportedly hold an event at its main campus in Cupertino, California.

In celebration of Earth Day, which takes place on April 22, Apple has started updating the logos of some of its retail stores with green leaf accents, a departure from the standard white logo.

For example, Apple's massive Nanjing East retail store in Shanghai has been updated with the green Earth Day logo, as it is just after 8AM on April 22 in China.

As noted last week by 9to5Mac, Apple is planning to celebrate Earth Day at multiple retail locations around the world, changing its logo and encouraging employees to wear special green shirts. The company is also planning to hold a special event at its headquarters in Cupertino, California.

Earlier today, Apple launched its "Better" environmental campaign, highlighting its efforts to lower its carbon footprint. Included in the campaign was a video detailing the construction of Apple Campus 2, which will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy sources.

(Thanks, Nina!)

Intel's third-generation Thunderbolt technology could see throughput increase to 40Gbps, double the current capacity of Thunderbolt 2, first introduced in Macs last fall, according to leaked information posted on a Chinese technology site [Google Translate].

The site says Intel's new Thunderbolt controller, code-named Alpine Ridge, will see power consumption reduced by 50 percent, support for PCIe generation-3, and charging capacities of up to 100 watts. Backward compatibility will be maintained through the use of connector adapters, but the new Thunderbolt connector itself will be reduced in size.

Last April, Intel first announced Thunderbolt 2 in April before seeing it move to the Mac in October. There is no indication of when the third-generation of Thunderbolt could make its way to consumers.

Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs biopic may be directed by Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The news comes a week after The Social Network director David Fincher failed to reach a deal with Sony, reportedly over fees.

Boyle is said to be in talks with Sony Pictures to direct the film, which uses material from Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography and will focus on three 30-minute scenes ahead of three product launches.

While Fincher was rumored to be interested in Christian Bale to play the role of Steve Jobs, Boyle reportedly has his eye on another big star -- Leonardo DiCaprio. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Boyle has approached DiCaprio to play Jobs in the film.

Aside from Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle has directed hits like 127 Hours, Trainspotting, and The Beach, which DiCaprio also starred in. DiCaprio has been in major films like Inception, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Great Gatsby. Boyle was also in charge of the opening ceremonies at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Aaron Sorkin completed the script for the biopic back in January, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak working as a consultant on the film. No potential release date has been announced.

Apple is continuing with its plans to introduce a mobile payments service and has began interviewing senior payments industry executives to take on roles within the company, reports Re/code.

Apple is looking to fill two new positions, focused on building an electronic payment service based on the company's existing iTunes accounts. Millions of customers have personal accounts that already store credit card information, allowing them to make purchases within the Apple Store app, in retail stores, and through iTunes. Apple hopes to expand this to third-party avenues as well, both online and at retail locations.

The company has been meeting with potential applicants for two new positions at Apple focused exclusively on building a business around the hundreds of millions of credit cards it already has on file. Apple is seeking to fill head of product and head of business development positions, one of these people said.

"Their ambitions are very, very serious," one of the sources said.

Apple's interest in the mobile payment arena has been rumored for years but gained renewed attention in early 2014, when The Wall Street Journal announced the company was working on a new mobile payment service, hoping to allow people to use their iOS devices to make purchases for physical goods in apps and on the web as well as in retail stores using payment info stored in iTunes accounts.

Apple has also been in talks with Paypal about a possible partnership and reportedly mulled an acquisition of mobile payments company Square, though it appears an acquisition did not pan out.

The company's mobile payment system will possibly be tied to Touch ID, the fingerprint scanning home button built into the iPhone 5s and reportedly slated for the upcoming iPhone 6 and future iPads. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in January that mobile payments were "one of the thoughts" behind Touch ID. He has also said that Apple is "intrigued" with mobile payments and noted there's a "big opportunity on the platform."

Apple has promised new hardware, software, and services across 2014, and it's possible that a mobile payment solution could come later this year, though a set date is unclear as the company is clearly still in the hiring stages.

As part of the "Better" environmental campaign that was initially unveiled this morning, Apple has posted a video of its Apple Campus 2 project, displaying a series of renderings of the building along with some details on the site from campus designer Norman Foster.

Foster speaks on Jobs' inspiration for the campus, noting his love of both Stanford and the area that he grew up in. "The idea is to bring California back to Cupertino," said Apple's senior arborist David Muffly, who is in charge of the flora that will be added to Apple's campus.

Along with the video, Apple outlines its plans to make its second campus more environmentally friendly. The site will be "the most energy-efficient building of its kind," powered by 100 percent renewable energy sources, including a massive solar energy installation.

The company also plans to have huge amounts of open space, which will be accompanied by both fruit and shade trees, and commute alternatives will see 15,000 Cupertino employees using biofuel buses, public transit, bikes, and more instead of cars.

The building itself is just part of the story. Just under 80 percent of the site will be open space, populated by more than 7000 trees — including more than 6000 newly planted shade and fruit trees. Drought-tolerant plants will be used throughout the landscape to minimize water use.

While the Apple Campus 2 video shared by Apple was initially unveiled in October during a session with the City of Cupertino, this is the first time Apple has released the video in high quality to the public. Apple is hoping to complete its second campus by 2016.

Last June, Apple began registering for trademarks on the "iWatch" name in a number of countries, but since that time the company has been bolstering its trademarks on the actual company name "Apple" to also cover jewelry and watches, MacRumors has discovered.

By international agreement, trademarks are broken down into 45 different classes to organize the types of goods and services being registered for protection. Watches and other jewelry are part of Class 14, which is focused on precious metals/stones and products made from those materials. While some of Apple's trademarks on the "Apple" name have previously included some goods from Class 14, the company is now broadening and cleaning up its trademark applications in those areas. The moves come as the company is widely expected to introduce its "iWatch" smart watch as soon as later this year.

Among the recent expansions for Apple is Ecuador, where Apple filed a new trademark application in late December specifically to add protection in Class 14 for a long list of product types including jewelry and watches. Google translation of new category application for "Apple" trademark:

jewelry; watches; watches; goods in precious metals or coated therewith; cufflinks or cufflinks; keychains; timers; brooches in precious metals or coated therewith; ornaments in precious metals or coated therewith; tie pins in precious metals or coated therewith; tie clips or tie clips of precious metal or coated therewith; badges of precious metal or coated therewith; bracelets of precious metal or coated therewith; Necklaces in precious metals or coated therewith; medals in precious metals or coated therewith; short chains and ornaments in precious metals or coated therewith; buttons in precious metals or coated therewith; clip in precious metals or coated therewith; boxes of precious metal or coated therewith; decorations in precious metals or coated therewith; jewelry; sculptures and precious metals products.

Applications in other countries have followed in recent months, including a nearly identical filing in Mexico in early January that again solely focused on Class 14. Other expansions have come as part of larger filings, such as in Norway, where Apple in mid-February applied for increased protection in seven different classes including a significant list within Class 14. And just last month that effort extended to the United Kingdom, where Apple filed to broaden its protections in over a dozen classes, including Class 14 for the first time there.

While new applications to protect Apple's use of its own name in jewelry and watches have appeared in a number of countries in recent months, the company has yet to make the move in all countries where it operates, most notably the United States where the "Apple" name is not currently covered under Class 14 at all.

In advance of Earth Day, Apple overhauled its Environmental Responsibility website with new content that reconfirms the company's dedication to operate its business in a way that is best for the environment. The updated website features a new "Better" video narrated by Apple CEO Tim Cook that explains the company's environmentally friendly values.

Keeping with this Earth Day theme, Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president for environmental initiatives, recently gave Wired an exclusive tour of Apple's newest data center in Yerington, Nevada. Apple is close to powering all its facilities entirely with renewable energy, with both its corporate office and data centers now at 94 percent and climbing. This Nevada facility continues Apple's commitment to obtain its energy from cleaner sources.

Though Jackson can’t take credit for Apple’s renewable initiative, she monitors its progress and, perhaps even more important, spreads the word that renewables aren’t just for tree-huggers, but are serious energy sources that can take on the biggest jobs. “No one can ever claim again you can’t have a data center that runs on 100 percent renewable,” says. “Once those proof points are out there, it makes it easier for policies to follow.”

Though the company uses wind and hydroelectric power in its other facilities, Apple is relying on solar power in its Nevada facility. This design mirrors the company's Maiden, North Carolina data center, which uses two 100-acre solar fields to produce a total of 50 megawatts.

Apple is now building out a similar solar array in Nevada on a 134-acre field within the grounds of the Nevada facility. When completed sometime next year, this array will generate approximately 18-20 megawatts of power, with the remaining power for the center being supplied by geothermal energy.

Apple today has added new channels from A&E Networks to its Apple TV, including A&E, The History Channel and Lifetime. Select Apple TV owners will be able to watch episodes from popular TV shows such as Duck Dynasty, Storage Wars, and Project Runway.

These new channels on the Apple TV offer a preview to all users, but full content is only available to cable television subscribers. Currently, the service is available to customers who subscribe to DirecTV, Verizon FiOS, and Cablevision Optimum, with support for additional providers coming in the near future.

The addition of these channels is part of a larger push by A&E Networks to expand their content beyond broadcast TV. Earlier this month, the network updated both its A&E [iTunes Link] and History Channel apps [iTunes Link], letting iOS owners stream live episodes of popular shows to their iPhone or iPad. Similar to the Apple TV, this iOS-based live streaming requires a valid cable subscription.