USPTO

By MacRumors Staff

USPTO Articles

timemachine

Apple Pays $25 Million in Settlement Over Cover Flow, Time Machine Patents

Friday July 8, 2016 5:07 pm PDT by
Apple will pay $25 million to settle a patent lawsuit with Network-1 Technologies' subsidiary Mirror World Technologies and license its patents, the companies announced today. The patent (No. 6,006,227) dates back to 1999, covering a system that stores documents in a stream ordered chronologically, similar to Apple's Cover Flow or Time Machine. Under the terms of the agreement, Apple will...
carousel e1467938953963

Pennsylvania Man Sues Apple Over Web Carousel Use

Thursday July 7, 2016 5:50 pm PDT by
Pennsylvania resident Samuel Lit has hit Apple with a lawsuit claiming that the company infringed on his patent for web carousels, according to documents filed in the Northern Illinois District Court (via AppleInsider). Apple's website typically features a homepage with a carousel containing four to five windows displaying its products. Lit owns U.S. Patent No. 8,793,330, which is a "system...
Apple vs Ross

Florida Man Sues Apple for $10+ Billion, Says iOS Devices Copy His 1992 Drawings

Tuesday June 28, 2016 8:30 am PDT by
Florida resident Thomas S. Ross has filed a lawsuit against Apple this week, claiming that the iPhone, iPad, and iPod infringe upon his 1992 invention of a hand-drawn "Electronic Reading Device" (ERD). The court filing claims the plaintiff was "first to file a device so designed and aggregated," nearly 15 years before the first iPhone. Between May 23, 1992 and September 10, 1992, Ross...
liquidmetal

Apple Granted Patent for Liquidmetal Home Button on iOS Devices

Tuesday March 8, 2016 7:17 am PST by
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today granted Apple a series of 40 new patents, including one that describes various implementations and benefits of a Liquidmetal home button on iPhones and iPads. Liquidmetal alloys, otherwise known as "bulk solidifying amorphous alloys" in the patent filing (via Patently Apple), have a number of unique properties, including high strength, corrosion...
Beats 1 2 3 4 5

Apple Files Trademarks for Beats 2, 3, 4, and 5 Radio Stations

Monday December 28, 2015 8:13 am PST by
Apple filed trademark applications for the word marks B2, B3, B4, and B5 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in November, including the matching marks Beats Two, Beats Three, Beats Four, and Beats Five, as spotted by French website Consomac [Google Translate]. The applications are currently pending review. All four trademark applications are assigned to "Beats Electronics, LLC," have...
panic mode patent iphone

Apple Patents Touch ID 'Panic Mode' for Instant Access to Emergency Services

Thursday November 5, 2015 4:15 am PST by
The United States Patent and Trademark Office today published a patent application initially filed by Apple in May of 2014, describing a method for users to designate a specific finger to unlock an iPhone with using Touch ID, which would then cause the iPhone to enter a "panic mode" (via Business Insider). The mode could then tell the iPhone to completely lock down, limiting access to personal...
Force Touch Keyboard Patent

Apple Patents Switch-Less Force Touch Keyboard, Could Lead to Thinner Macs

Tuesday November 3, 2015 7:03 am PST by
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday granted Apple a patent for a low-travel keyboard design with Force Touch-like sensors that measure the pressure placed on a key when a user presses or rests a finger on it. As summarized by AppleInsider, the exhaustive patent filing details how the keyboard would have a switch-less QWERTY input mechanism, rather than mechanical switches,...