Apple was granted nine new patents on Tuesday, including an ink engine patent for future tablet applications. Other patent wins cover industrial design for the Airport Extreme, earphones, the universal dock and iPhone retail packaging. The key patent, however, is for the Ink Phase Termination Engine. The concept would support Apple's Inkwell technology -- featured in Mac OS X -- in a theoretical tablet device.

The patent relates to an ink manager for acquiring and organizing pen-based ink information, to be used by various applications. Unlike the iPhone, which is limited to finger input, a proposed tablet could accommodate a stylus or other pen-based input system, allowing for specialized handwriting and drawing. Rumors of an Apple tablet have existed for some time, but have not been supported far beyond patents.