The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of nine newly Issued Patents for Apple Inc. today. The notables within this group include one relating to a design win for Apple’s iPod Classic along with two additional patents that detail both anti-shock and freefall protections for portables such as Apple’s iPod and iPhone line-ups. Apple’s freefall patent also extends to protect other devices such as a stand-alone camera, onboard vehicular computers and in a related patent not published today, a possible two-handed gaming tablet.

Apple Granted iPod Classic Design Patent

Apple has been granted a design patent for an “Electronic device” which is generally understood to be the iPod Classic, as the illustrations confirm.

Apple credits the following engineers and CEO Steve Jobs for the iPod Classic Design: Andre; Bartley K. (Menlo Park, CA), Coster; Daniel J. (San Francisco, CA), De Iuliis; Daniele (San Francisco, CA), Howarth; Richard P. (San Francisco, CA), Ive; Jonathan P. (San Francisco, CA), Jobs; Steve (San Francisco, CA), Kerr; Duncan Robert (San Francisco, CA), Nishibori; Shin (San Francisco, CA), Rohrbach; Matthew Dean (San Francisco, CA), Satzger; Douglas B. (Menlo Park, CA), Seid; Calvin Q. (Palo Alto, CA), Stringer; Christopher J. (Portola Valley, CA) and Whang; Eugene Antony (San Francisco, CA). Apple’s granted patent D593,536 was originally filed in October 2008.

Method and apparatus for detecting free fall Patent

Apple has been granted a patent that generally relates to data storage devices, such as hard disc drive assemblies and data processing systems. In particular, the invention relates to data storage devices that are subject to free fall or other changes in acceleration, for example, storage devices used in portable computers, cameras, onboard vehicular computers, and similar electronic devices. `Free fall` produces a change in the force, i.e. acceleration, of gravity as perceived in the frame of reference in which the data storage device is at rest.

Apple’s patent FIG. 1 is an exemplary view of a data processing system in free fall. As shown, the data processing system contains a hard disc operatively coupled to a read/write head. An embodiment of the present invention has sensed free fall and safely parked the actuator and magnetic head prior to impact. Apple’s patent FIG. 2 is a schematic illustrating how system electronics within a data processing system can monitor an embodiment of the present invention and command a data storage device, such as a hard disc drive, to park an actuator and magnetic head when a state of free fall is detected.

Apple Paul James Wehrenberg (Palo Alto, CA) as the sole inventor of granted patent 7,541,551 which was filed in March 2008 though it was a continuation of patents dating back to several dates including 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

It should be noted that Paul J. Wehrenberg’s expertise in this field has also been instrumental in another Apple patent titled “Methods and apparatuses for operating a portable device based on an accelerometer:” A patent which reveals a two-handed style gaming tablet that Apple’s labs have been working on since 2004. Additional information on that patent will be revealed in the days ahead.

Mounted Shock Sensor Patent

Apple’s newly granted patent for a mounted shock sensor is for an application that applies to Apple’s handheld devices such as the iPod and iPhone. The shock sensor includes both active and passive shock detection methods that allow a technician to determine whether the electronic device was subjected to a shock event that exceeded an impact threshold level. The shock sensor may include shock detection contacts that form an electrical circuit that remains open in the absence of a shock event that exceeds an impact threshold level.
Apple’s portable devices are designed for the active digital lifestyle and therefore require protective technologies such as shock sensors and freefall detection – especially if the user is going to “Rock the Gym” with Nike + iPod.

Apple’s patent FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an illustrative shock sensor system that includes both active and passive attributes in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, while patent FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an illustrative device in which a shock sensor is implemented.

Apple credits both Stephen P. Zadesky (Portola Valley, CA) and Fletcher R. Rothkopf (Mountain View, CA) as the inventors of granted patent 7,541,939. The patent was originally filed for in March 2007.

Other Granted Patents Issued Today

Apple was granted additional patents today which included the following: a Board connector (7,540,742); Method and system for operating a portable electronic device in a power-limited manner (7,541,776); Universal Serial Bus plug and socket coupling arrangements (7,540,754); Backward compatible connector system (7,540,788); Quiet fan speed control (7,541,698) and Robust temporal dithering and filtering (7,542,620).

Menlo Trademark Follow-up: Apple’s trademark for Menlo was published yesterday in Europe and today, the USPTO has published the US application for same, under application 77745991. Nothing new was added to the US filing.

NOTICE: MacNN presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or Issued Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent application and/or Issued Patent should be read in its entirety for further details. For additional information on any granted patent noted above, simply feed the patent number(s) into this search engine.

Jack Purcher, MacNN Senior Patent Editor