The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of nine newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. The notables within this group include an interesting patent relating to a never used click wheel iPod doubling as an iPhone, iTunes backup and a power adapter. In this report we also cover Apple’s App Store trademark filing and a follow up to the Nano Phone report.

Granted Patent: iTunes Backup

Apple’s patent generally relates to backing up media libraries and, more particularly, to backing up items in a media library on multiple storage mediums. Specifically, the patent covers iTunes Backup.

If you’re new to OS X and iTunes backup, you could check out this Howcast video or this YouTube video along with information from Apple (for Mac or Windows). Using Apple’s Time Capsule is another way to backup your media files.

Apple credits David Heller as the sole inventor of granted patent 7,574,574 which was originally filed for in September 2006.

Granted Patent: Apple’s Power Adapter

Apple’s patent generally relates to apparatus and methods for powering peripheral devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to improved techniques for powering and/or charging peripheral devices through a data transmission line.

Apple’s patent FIGS. 3-5 illustrate a power adapter 80, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 3 and 4 are perspective views of the power adapter while FIG. 5 is a bottom view.

Apple credits Daniele DeIuliis, Andrew Bert Hodge, Jeffrey L. Robbin, Stanley Carl Ng, Eric W. Anderson and, Anthony M. Fadell as the inventors of granted patent 7,573,159. While the original filing date is listed as March 9, 2005, Apple also notes that the patent relates to U.S. Design Patent Application No.: 29/153,133, entitled “Power Adapter”, filed on Oct. 22, 2001.

Granted Patent: Click Wheel iPhone

Apple’s granted patent embodiments relate to user interfaces, and in particular, to telephone user interfaces that include a click wheel. The click-wheel iPod doubling as an iPhone has yet to surface. Whether Apple is reserving this feature for a future iPod or Nano Phone is unknown at this time.

Apple credits Steven P. Jobs, Scott Forstall, Greg Christie, Bas Ording, Imran Chaudhri, Stephen Lemay, Marcel Van Os, Freddy Allen Anzures and Mike Matas as the inventors of granted patent 7,574,672 originally filed on July 24, 2006.

Apple Files for App Store Logo Trademark

Apple has filed trademark application 77799099 for the App Store logo as shown below. Apple has filed it under International Class 009 which covers the following: Computer software; Computer application software for mobile phones, portable media players, and handheld computers; Computer software for use in searching, reviewing, purchasing, and downloading software applications.

Apple Inc. claims ownership of U.S. Registration Number(s) 3628321.

Nano-Phone Patent Follow-Up

I would like to extend my thanks to the fifty some websites that covered my patent report on the Nano-Phone last month – with a special thanks to VentureBeat, the Silicon Valley BusinessJournal, Celulares Nuevos and the Digital Journal. Since returning from my holidays, I’ve had several requests for information on the Australian patent that Apple originally filed in 2008. The patent was made public by the European Patent Office last month under the Australian Patent Application Number AU2008100000 A4 – as shown below.

Other patents relevant to the Australian filing include an Australian Publication number AU2007342094 and a corresponding document listed as US 2007103454 (A1). More importantly, the key patents that Apple deems to be the priority patents related to the “Back-side interface for hand-held devices” patent were disclosed in the Australian filing as follows:

“This application claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/115,539 entitled “Hand Held Electronic Device with Multiple Touch Sensing Devices” by Duncan Robert Kerr, Steve Hotelling and Brian Huppi (filed 26 Apr. 2005). The subject matter claimed herein is also related to subject matter described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/278,080 entitled “Force Imaging Input Device and System” by Steve Hotelling and Brian Huppi (filed 30 Mar. 2006), Ser. No. 11/382,402 entitled “Force and Location Sensitive Display” by Steve Hotelling (filed 9 May 2006) and 10/840,862 entitled “Multipoint Touchscreen” by Steve Hotelling and Brian Huppi (filed 6 May 2004) and, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.”

It seems to be very clear that the nano-phone concept has been in the works for some time now and that the patents that Apple obtained from Elias Greer were only part of this product’s development cycle. The information discovered in the Australian filing provides us with some needed history and perspective.

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 individual patent number(s) into this search engine. The Australian patent information could be accessed at the European Patent Office.

Researched and Written by Jack Purcher