MacRumors

In a decision handed down by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Apple has been denied an application for a trademark on the term Multi-Touch. Apple originally applied for the trademark on January 9, 2007, the day the iPhone was introduced.

A lawyer for the USPTO denied Apple's initial trademark application and the company appealed to the Appeal Board. The board upheld the initial refusal to grant the trademark.

For trademarks, "the greater the degree of descriptiveness the term has, the heavier the burden to prove it has attained secondary meaning." The trademark attorney pointed out that the term "multitouch" has taken on generic meaning, being used by a wide variety of publications to describe the touchscreen technology on Android phones, tablets, and notebooks.

Thus, from the foregoing, we find that “multi-touch” not only identifies the technology, but also describes how a user of the goods operates the device. Based on the evidence discussed above, as well as other evidence in the record, we agree with the examining attorney that MULTI-TOUCH indeed is highly descriptive of a feature of the identified goods. We now consider whether applicant has submitted sufficient evidence to establish acquired distinctiveness of this highly descriptive term.

There is a list of items that can determine if a mark has "acquired distinctiveness", including sales success, length and exclusivity of use, and advertising expenditures. The board ruled that Apple has not met the burden to be granted a trademark on multi-touch.

We've posted the full decision to Scribd.

Mashable claims that Facebook is actually launching its long-awaited iPad app at Apple's rumored October 4th media event where the company is believed to be launching iOS 5 and the iPhone 5.

Facebook will launch its long-awaited iPad app at Apple’s iPhone 5 launch event on Oct. 4, Mashable has learned. In addition to the iPad app, Facebook is also expected to release a revamped version of its iPhone app and may unveil an HTML5-based mobile app marketplace.

The news comes after a report that a Facebook developer had quit with concerns that the iPad Facebook app may never launch.

According to Mashable, Facebook may introduce a revamped iPhone app as well. There has been evidence in the past that the two companies were be working to integrate Facebook into iOS much as Apple has done with Twitter, but disagreements reportedly derailed the integration.

Last week, Robert Scoble also revealed that he had heard that Facebook would be releasing its iPad app at Apple's event on October 4th.

Apple is expected to hold a media event on October 4th where the company will introduce the iPhone 5 and announce a release date for iOS 5.

Business Insider noticed earlier today that Facebook engineer Jeff Verkoeyen, who has been responsible for development of the social networking company's iPad application since the beginning of this year, has left his position and taken a job at Google.

In a blog post (apparently down for the moment due to high traffic), Verkeoyen laid out his personal complaints about Facebook and the status of the iPad application, noting that the application has been feature-complete since May but has yet to see a release and may never see the light of day. Verkoeyen has apparently since edited the post to remove his original thoughts on the iPad app.

Verkoeyen wrote on his blog today that he was the lead engineer on the Facebook iPad app back in January. He put a ton of time into the app.

It was feature-complete back in May, he writes, but Facebook kept pushing its release out another two weeks, then another. (Feature-complete doesn't necessarily mean "finished," but it's usually the last stage before a public beta test.)

Now, he thinks it "may never be released."

Verkoeyen did not offer any details on the reasons behind the repeated delays.

The New York Times reported back in June that a Facebook app for iPad would be released "in coming weeks". In late July, an iPad version of the existing app for iPhone was discovered inside the iPhone app, accessible through a tweak, but Facebook quickly disabled access to the iPad-specific interface through that mechanism. Some had hoped for a launch at the company's F8 conference last week, but an iPad app was not a part of Facebook's announcements at the event.

Late last week, CNET reported on a new trojan horse threat targeting Mac users. While the threat was initially discovered back in late July and had yet to become fully functional, only recently was the malware highlighted by antivirus companies targeting such threats.

The new threat consists of two parts, with the first being a trojan downloader known as "OSX/Revir.A" that serves to distract users by downloading and continually opening a PDF document containing "offensive political statements" written in Chinese. But the actual damage from OSX/Revir.A comes as it installs a backdoor known as OSX/Imuler.A to potentially allow malicious parties to access the user's machine.

When the backdoor is installed, it will set up a launch agent on the system that is used to continually keep the malware active on the system. It will then connect to a remote server and send the system's current username and MAC address to the server, after which the server will instruct it to either archive files and upload them, or take screenshots and upload them to the server.

The report noted that the malware did not appear to function properly due to a lack of instructions being delivered from a remote server, but malicious activity could still be possible.

Apple has moved quickly to counter the threat, updating its malware definitions for Snow Leopard and Lion systems to allow them to recognize the trojan. Apple updated its tools earlier this year in response to the MacDefender threat, and Snow Leopard and Lion systems now automatically check for new malware definitions on a daily basis.

Apple's battles with malware authors continue, however, as CNET discloses that another trojan horse, known as OSX/flashback.A, has been discovered. Like a similar threat that surfaced early last month, the new trojan masquerades as a Flash Player installer to trick users into installing the package.

Unlike the previous Flash Trojan (called Bash/QHost.WB), which changed one file on the system, this new Trojan is a bit more complex and first deactivates network security features, then installs a dyld library that will run and inject code into applications that the user is running. The Trojan will also try to send personal information and machine-specific information to remote servers.

Users requiring Adobe's Flash Player software are of course advised to download it directly from Adobe's site rather than attempting to install it from sites which may be trying to trick users into installing malware. If past history is any indication, Apple should quickly update its malware definitions to help recognize the new threat, alerting users to the known malicious nature of the package should they attempt to download and install it.

Earlier today, a report from JPMorgan analysts made headlines for its claim that Apple has slashed its fourth quarter iPad production plans by 25%, sparking speculation and rumors that Apple may be planning a price cut amid weakening demand.

The Wall Street Journal notes, however, that several analysts have already spoken out against the conclusion, arguing that a single supply chain data point is insufficient to warrant such drastic production cut predictions. From Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster:

We also note that previous calls based on sell-in or supply chain data have, for the most part, proven to have very little correlation with Apple’s results vs. consensus dating back to early iPod shipments (2003). We believe Apple purposely maintains enough suppliers and manufacturing partners to make any one supply-side data point inconclusive.

Analysts also note that Apple appears to have actually accelerated production and bumped up third quarter orders to stockpile iPads heading into the holiday shopping season. Sources also indicate that Apple is likely to begin production of the iPad 3 at the end of the fourth quarter or early in 2012 and may be accelerating production now in order to ease that transition.

Apple struggled with the transition from iPad to iPad 2 production earlier this year, with weak sales coming in the first quarter of this year as Apple scaled down production of the original iPad and was unable to meet heavy initial demand for the iPad 2. From Susquehanna analyst Chris Caso:

We believe chatter regarding iPad production cuts are misleading – we have seen pull-ins, not cuts. We have noted recent comments by competitors discussing iPad production cuts for 4Q. Our recently published AAPL supply-chain checks noted a sequential decline in 4Q iPad builds from 17 mln-19 mln units in 3Q to 11 mln-13 mln units in 4Q. However, the 4Q sequential decline was accompanied by an increase in 3Q builds, leading us to conclude that production was likely pulled-in from 4Q to 3Q.

Some have suggested that the fourth quarter production cuts may be due to Apple shifting some production to Brazil by the end of the year, although most of Apple's Asian component suppliers would be expected to be serving that production channel in addition to the existing Chinese channel.

Apple's stock dropped as much 3% earlier today as the initial report circulated, but has since rebounded and is currently down only about 1.25%.

9to5Mac offers a more complete picture of what users can expect with Apple's forthcoming "Assistant" feature, revealing that the Nuance/Siri voice-powered personal assistant will require the iPhone 4S/5 that will be introduced at next week's media event.

The report details the natural speech recognition capabilities of Assistant and its ability to integrate across a number of iOS services to offer a powerful personal assistant allow users to handle scheduling, reminder, and messaging tasks solely by voice. Examples of real-world applications of the feature include setting a personal reminder to pick up milk once the user arrives at a market, asking for GPS directions to a location, and composing and sending text messages by voice.

Assistant will also reportedly integrate a conversational aspect in which the system can ask the user questions to clarify and refine its understanding of what is being requested.

The system will actually speak back and forth with the user to gain the most information in order to provide the best results. The user essentially can hold a conversation with their iPhone like it is another human being. For example, if a user is making a meeting with me, they will say “setup meeting with Mark” and the first “bubble” of the conversation thread will say that. After that, the system will speak back: “which e-mail address should Mark be notified at, work or personal?” This question will both be spoken out loud by the iPhone Assistant and shown as a new “bubble” in the conversation thread. The user will then respond with the email address they want to notify me at, and the appointment will be made. The iPhone will even show a quick glance at a calendar view to confirm the appointment. If the Assistant was sending an SMS, as another example, a mini SMS view would appear so the user has a quick glance at the SMS thread.

Assistant is also said to integrate with WolframAlpha, allowing users to obtain answers to factual questions using the service's computational capabilities. Other voice-powered features coming as part of the package include integration with Apple's "Find My Friends" service and speech-to-text transcription from Nuance.

The report notes that the sophisticated voice features will require the new iPhone hardware from Apple, relying on the company's A5 system-on-a-chip and a bump in RAM to 1 GB to support the heavy workload. Both the A4-based iPhone 4 and A5-based iPad 2 currently offer 512 MB of RAM. Sources also reiterate long-standing claims of an 8-megapixel rear camera in the new iPhone.

MacRumors has independently heard very similar information regarding the Assistant capabilities in the next iPhone, lending credence to the details included in the report.

As for whether Apple's next iPhone will be an iPhone 4-like model known so far as the iPhone 4S or a redesigned iPhone 5, today's report notes that the next-generation prototypes capable of offering the Assistant feature have so far been seen as iPhone 4-like in design. But sources are careful not to read too much into that fact, as Apple had been rumored to be putting iPhone 5 internals into iPhone 4 cases for testing and secrecy purposes, and the company's final plans remain unknown.

AllThingsD reports that Apple's iPhone media event apparently scheduled for October 4th will be held at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California rather than the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco as has been typical for their iPad and iPod events.

Sources close to the company say the demonstration — currently scheduled for Tuesday October 4, a date first reported by AllThingsD — will be held at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California.

The report notes that it is unknown why Apple has chosen its own Town Hall Auditorium for the event, but offers a couple of theories including the possibility of uncertainty in locking down a date preventing Apple from booking an outside venue or a desire to give new CEO Tim Cook a more intimate venue for the first major product introduction under his official watch.

Apple has certainly used its on-campus facilities for media events in the past, most recently last October's "Back to the Mac" event. The site has also been used for the company's iOS media and developer preview events typically held each spring ahead of new hardware releases, as well as last July's press conference to address concerns over antenna performance on the iPhone 4.

Apple's iPhone introductions have until this year taken place at San Francisco's Moscone Center as part of larger events, with the original iPhone first being shown at Macworld Expo and later introductions coming at the company's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts has been Apple's major off-campus site for those media events not associated with conferences such as Macworld and WWDC. It has typically hosted Apple's fall media events that have focused on iPod and iTunes, and has also been the site of Apple's two iPad introductions.

AppleInsider reports that Apple has started denying vacation requests for employees during the 2nd week of October.

Apple is quietly denying requests for employee vacations during the second week of October, hinting that the company currently anticipates an influx of customers to its stores around that time related to availability of its new iOS 5 and fifth-generation iPhone products.

Specifically, dates from October 9th through 12th and October 14th through 15th are said to be restricted, suggesting Apple plans on launching new products during that time.

The first set of dates from October 9th-12th could represent iOS 5 launch, as Apple has informed AppleCare to expect an influx of support calls starting on October 10th. Coincidentally, Twitter has announced their own developer session in London on the same date. The October 10th Twitter developer session is said to have a "heavy focus on the iOS 5 Twitter integration".

Meanwhile, the 14th to 15th dates suggests that Apple may be preparing for a retail launch of their next generation iPhones on that Friday, the 14th. The timeframe is consistent with other circulating iPhone rumors as well as our knowledge of Apple's expected availability for the White iPod touch.

Apple is expected to hold a media event on October 4th to announce the next generation iPhone as well as the official launch of iOS 5.

Update: UK Apple Stores have been similarly told to block out the "first two weeks of October".

Apple has sent an email to developers notifying them that their iCloud libraries housing iTunes Match data will be wiped on Monday, September 26th at 9AM PDT. The reason for the wipe is to "improve the overall quality and reliability" of the service. The news comes after Apple wiped all the iCloud backup data on Thursday, September 22nd.

We believe these are preparations for Apple to launch the final Golden Master (GM) version of iOS 5. Apple had been planning to declare iOS 5 as GM on Friday, September 23rd, though we haven't heard confirmation yet if that had actually taken place. Also on schedule was to start installing iOS 5 GM onto new devices in their factories on Monday, September 26th. Assuming all this has remained on schedule, we expect the final GM version of iOS 5 to be release to developers as early as next week.

iCloud and iTunes Match services have been running in developer beta for the last couple of months. The public release is scheduled for "Fall", and it seems likely Apple will announce the ship date at their rumored October 4th media event.

Comcast, the United States' largest cable and internet provider, is working on a television streaming solution for iPads, to compete with Cablevision and Time Warner. The streaming product was announced earlier this year, but details haven't been released until now.

The product, called AnyPlay, allows Comcast subscribers to view live television on their iPad as long as it's connected to their home network; users must have a special Motorola box which, apparently, takes the live cable stream and sends it directly to the Xfinity TV iPad app over a local wireless network. The service won't work over Wi-Fi from other locations, or via 3G.

Update: Engadget believes the Motorola Televation cable TV-to-IPTV box is what Comcast will be using for AnyPlay.

Other solutions, like Time Warner's, stream live video over an internet connection. Comcast's AnyPlay appears to be a cable box that sends video to the iPad rather than to a television. Users can watch "most" channels included with their Xfinity TV service. Users can register up to 10 tablets, but only watch live TV on one tablet at a time.

Currently, Xfinity customers can use the Xfinity TV app to watch On Demand programming, search TV listings, and schedule DVR recordings.

There is no indication of release dates or availability, but AnyPlay will be available in limited markets at first, and spreading to all Comcast customers eventually.

Comcast previously used the "AnyPlay" name on an announced but never released product with Panasonic in 2008.