On Monday, MacNN filed the report titled “Apple’s 2002 iPhone trademark filing is still being appealed” which presented the history of Apple’s ongoing battle with the European Patent Office for the rights to “iPhone.”
Specific new data has recently surfaced in the IPAustralia database in regards to two new filings for iPhone that originated in Trinidad and Tobago under number 37090. Apple’s Australian filings were made under numbers 1136410 and 1136412. The “Lodgement Dates” for both are noted as September 19, 2006, while “Convention Details” notes the date of March 27, 2006. Furthermore, an “Acceptance Due” date is noted in the filing as being January 11, 2008. The filing enclosed images pertaining to the trademark, as noted above.
Apple’s Australian filing for iPhone under application number 1136412 specifically covers International Class 28 which Apple listed in full as follows:
Stand alone video game machines; pinball and arcade game machines; hand-held unit for playing electronic games; coin-operated video games; toy computers, phones and other toy consumer electronic devices; electronic action toys; electronic educational game machines for children; musical toys; battery operated remote controlled toy vehicles; toys and games, namely, action figures and accessories therefore; board games; card games; playing cards.
Apple’s Australian filing for iPhone under application number 1136410 specifically covers International Class 9 which Apple listed in full as follows:
Handheld and mobile digital electronic devices for the sending and receiving of telephone, calls, faxes, electronic mail, and other digital data MP3 and other digital format audio players; handheld computers, personal digital assistants, electronic organizers, electronic notepads; magnetic data ewers; telephones, mobile phones, computer gaming machines, videophones, cameras; pre recorded computer programs for personal information management database management software, electronic mail and messaging software, paging software, database synchronization software, computer programs far accessing, browsing and searching online databases, computer software and firmware, namely operating system programs, data synchronization programs, and application development tool programs for personal and handheld computers; electronic handheld units for the wireless receipt and/or transmission of data that enable the user to keep track of or manage personal information; software for the redirection of messages, Internet mail, and/or other data to me or more electronic handheld devices from a data store on or associated with a personal computer or a server; and software for the synchronization of data between a remote station or device and a fixed or remote station or device; computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global, information networks.
2007: One of the Most Exciting Product Years
Steve Jobs yesterday stated that “Looking forward, 2007 is likely to be one of the most exciting new product years in Apple’s history.” So what can we expect?
Well, we know at this point that Apple is going to debut their new iTV device sometime in calendar Q1 to kick off the exciting product year followed by the official launch of Mac OS X Leopard. 2007 is also the year that we should see Apple debut a new optical drive which may support Blu-ray and/or HD DVD standards. Yet in context with today’s trademark report, it would appear that Apple’s relentless battle to attain the iPhone trademark may very well suggest that indeed their new iPhone line of products are on track beginning sometime in 2007.
Think Different: iPhone, iTV
Whether Apple will wait to launch their new iPhone device in the second half of 2008 when Mobile WiMAX is expected to officially rollout worldwide or decide to strike earlier in late 2007 is yet an unknown wildcard. Yet the “Acceptance” date for iPhone is expected to arrive on January 11, 2008. That’s just about perfect timing for a MacWorld 2008 announcement. Then again, could something iPhone-related launch earlier?
Well, looking closer at Apple’s iPhone filing you’ll notice two very interesting points such as “pre recorded computer programs” and a “data store on or associated with a personal computer or a server; and software for the synchronization of data between a remote station or device and a fixed or remote station or device; computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global, information networks.” Perhaps it’s just me, but you have to wonder if there’s just a little wiggle room here for a connection between a future iPhone and Apple’s forthcoming iTV.
As far back as April 2005 I was discussing network-centric televisions integrated with IP/TV services and how your cell phone would become your TV remote, in a Next Wave series article titled “Apple’s NEW-TRON Bombshell.” And more recently, there’s been a new Apple patent application which has surfaced which contains all new patent “Claims” pertaining to “an appliance” which works in concert with an Apple universal remote to control everything from your TV to your stereo components and so forth. That same point was echoed earlier on in “Apple’s “Image scaling arrangement” patent which clearly links the iPod to being a TV-remote and more.
And the closest proof of an iPod using a communication module working on a national wireless communications network, to date, could be found in a recent Apple-related patent which also happened to illustrate an iPod-like phone (as noted here, to your right.)
In that same report you could find references to yet another Apple patent which in fact discusses communication modules for the iPod and provides a descriptive “Skier Scenario.” The communications modules described in that patent were in context with a “personal mobile radio” which included various radio based capabilities and options including voice communications, messaging (pager, email), digital one-way radio (one to one and group), digital two-way radio (one to one and group), data services (wireless web and private networks). Many of these services are in sync with Apple’s new iPhone filing number 1136410 noted above.
So taking a tiny leap of faith by combining Apple’s various iPod patent concepts of an iPod-like phone (iPhone) with TV- remote functionality isn’t that difficult to make. Where the fun comes in, of course, will be when Apple eventually introduces iPhone as a telephonic iLife iapplication of sorts: Perhaps as an option for Front Row. That will eventually lead to iPhone playing out on – yes – your High-Def television via Apple’s forthcoming iTV consumer electronics device.
Apple’s current iChat AV branding may be fine today for Mac geeks, but once Apple reaches out to the average consumer like Grandma, iPhone is going to be little easier to relate to than iChat AV. So what about the video side of iPhone playing out on your TV? Well, that’s really a subject for another day perhaps, but suffice to say for now that Apple does indeed have a patent on record whereby a display (or TV, of course) will also double as a built-in video camera. Yes, true face-to-face video telephony will finally arrive, eliminating the need to stare at a clumsy on-device camera. You’ll simply look at your TV display and see your caller looking right back at you directly, eye-to-eye, with neither of you being distracted with looking at the stupid camera. No more wondering-eye syndrome. It’ll be as natural as having an everyday conversation with someone in person. In fact, Apple’s patent application number 20060007222 states that “A video panel that has an embedded macro CCD is no longer just a display. It can be used to transmit as well as receive visual information. One use and benefit for such a panel is video conferencing: a user can maintain eye contact with someone on screen because the camera is “in” the screen.” Can it get any clearer than that? No. And who in the world will want a video cam clipped to the top of their cool HDTV anyways? So while the discussions about Apple’s iPhone are myopically looking at just a single device, Apple is looking at the bigger picture, literally and figuratively, whereby these two applications, iPhone and iTV, are very much intersecting on our future HDTV.
2007: iPhone application and Action Figure
For now, I wouldn’t be surprised to at least see Apple’s iPhone application pop up in Mac OS X Leopard just before the end of 2007 – setting up the eventual launch of their iPhone device for 2007 or 2008. The thought of being able to answer my future iPhone’s incoming calls right from my HDTV, while iTV puts my programming on hold automatically, sounds like a blast.
At the end of the day, only time will tell if any of these scenarios pertaining to iPhone will actually play out in 2007. Yet in Apple’s typical evolutionary manner, I think that we’ll begin to see some of the fundamental building blocks of iPhone unfold.
On the more humorous side of the equation, Apple’s iPhone trademark also included “action figures and accessories.” Yes, I could see it now: Get the Steve Jobs Action Figure today and we’ll include Steve’s powerful Zune-Killer ray gun at no extra charge!
Then again, you could always get that Zune-Killer ray gun today. It’s called an iPod!
Written by Neo.
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