The European Patent Office has recently revealed a series of thirty Apple iPhone and iPod protective case designs which could begin to roll out as early as next month’s developer conference. Unlike Apple’s patent filings, design filings lack relevant detailing concerning future product features and/or unique materials that they could be considering. Yet on the surface, Apple appears to have covered every possible variant in this design series. In fact, Apple includes a few open “slip in” design form factors that will allow touch screen surfaces to be freely accessible. Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive are listed amongst the designers.

New iPhone/iPod Case Designs

All of the filing documents associated with these designs lists the following as inventors/designers: Steve Jobs, Jonathan P. Ive, Bartley Andre, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Luliis, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Rohrbach, Peter Satzger, Calvin Seid, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer. Apple’s representatives originally filed the design series in Munich Germany on March 4, 2008.

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Note: The European trademark office referred to in this report is officially known as the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market .