Apple was recently approved for a number of patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The significance behind these patents is the fact that many of them were designed by late CEO Steve Jobs and Apple’s design chief, Jonathan Ive. One patent, filed as U.S. Patent D671937, and called “Electronic Device” referred to the iPhone 4 design and the antenna design which was the focus of intense scrutiny until it was redesigned in the iPhone 4S.
Jony Ive was also credited for some patents, such as the Bumper design for the iPhone 4 and 4S. It was filed as U.S. Patent D671930, and was simply named “Cover. Other patents included the Smart Cover, also called “Cover” and filed as U.S. Patent D671948 as well as the L-shaped Magsafe connector in older generation Macbooks which was entitled “Connector” and filed as U.S. Patent D671898.
Apple’s Magsafe connector is now called Magsafe 2 and ships with all new Macbooks. With all of these patents, Apple retains many of its original product ideas, which it can improve on as the generations of products progress. For example, Apple introduced the Smart Cover with the iPad 2 and is still sold with the fourth generation iPad and iPad mini and will likely continue to advance with future generations of the iPad.
{via AppleInsider}
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