Apple introduced iOS app folders in iOS 4 and has had the ‘Jiggle Mode’ UI since iOS 1. On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple the patent for iOS app folders and the ‘Jiggle Mode’ UI.

The patent, which is listed as U.S. Patent No. 8,423,911, describes the iOS app folders as “Device, method, and graphical user interface for managing folders” and describes the methods to rearrange applications and organizing them. In the patent file from the USPTO, Imran Chaudhri is listed as the inventor of the UI feature.

For example, using a sequence of inputs to create, modify and/or delete folders and content within folders is tedious and creates a significant cognitive burden on a user. In addition, existing methods take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.

Apple’s “Jiggle Mode” is also included in the patent, an animation that signifies that the user is able to move any of the applications on the home screen around. This is likely the reason that both features were including in the same patent, because of their interaction in iOS. In Jiggle mode, when a user places an app on top of another, it will automatically generate a folder with type of app such as ‘Games’ or ‘Productivity’. These names are taken from the app’s metadata generated from the App Store’s organizational categories.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 5B, the selectable user interface objects jiggle as though they are floating on water (e.g., each respective selectable user interface object oscillates about a respective average position of the selectable user interface object on the display).

Apple does not own patents on all of its iOS features, getting these patents over 2 years after introducing the feature. However, as the company releases more iOS features in iOS 7 and beyond, they will begin to collect more patents along the way.

{Via AppleInsider}

Apple continues to make improvements to its iPhone with each refresh. On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved Apple for a MultiTouch Solar Cell panel patent that may change the future of the iPhone. The technology allows for a touch sensor to be integrated into a solar panel, which can make the iPhone power efficient and more compact.

The patent, which is filed as Patent No. 8,368,654 is simply listed as an “Integrated touch sensor and solar assembly”. However, the technology is much more advanced than the patent filing mentions. The solar panel is not attached to the MultiTouch with two separate pieces, instead of operating as one panel with electrodes that can operate as both a capacitive touch sensor and a solar energy collector.

In practical use, the capacitive touch sensors and solar cells would be separated using isolation trenches, as noted in the images. Both the touch sensors and the solar cells would be integrated into the multiplexer circuitry which would then allow it to switch between touch signals and the power from the solar cells, which would likely be delivered for CPU usage or to the battery for storage.

Currently, Apple uses capacitive touch panels that have the sole purpose of displaying images, photos, videos etc. However, with the MultiTouch Solar Cell panels, Apple can replace the current screen technology and move to a technology that can also provide energy solutions for the iPhone. This, in turn, could potentially solve battery issues on the iPhone as the devices become thinner and more compact.

It is unlikely that Apple would include something so advanced in its next generation iPhone 5S / 6, but it is a possibility for future models as the Cupertino, California company is consistently moving ahead of the competition. As solar panels and alternate forms of energy for mobile devices become common in the industry, Apple will likely integrate this technology. Apple filed the patent in 2008 and listed Michael Nathaniel Rosenblatt, Benjamin Lyon, John Benjamin Filson, Steve Porter Hotelling, Gordon Cameron and Cameron Frazier as inventors.

{Via AppleInsider}

Apple continues to acquire more trademarks to build its empire of clever names for its products. The most recent, the name for Apple’s ‘Lightning’ connector was reportedly acquired from American motorcycle manufacturer, Harley-Davidson. Patent site Patently Apple initially noted that a filing with the European Union showed the ‘Lightning’ name belonging to H-D Michigan, Inc., the holding company for the Harley-Davidson motorcycle company.

According to AppleInsider, Harley-Davidson owned the rights to the ‘Lightning’ name for a number of products, including: television sets, games, computer game programs, eyeglasses, and eyeglass frames, as well as motorcycle electrical parts, protective helmets and turn signals. Apple was also reportedly given a ‘partial transfer’ of the trademark, meaning that HarleyDavidson still reserves the right to use the name with motorcycle related products. Harley-Davidson has possession of the trademark until 2013, meaning that Apple will continue to acquire the naming rights until the trademark expires.

Apple’s Lightning connector replaces the popular 30 pin connector on older iOS devices, which were widely available in third party chains, and were essentially found in every household. As sales of the iPhone 5, iPod Nano, iPod Touch, and iPad (all of which have the new connector), the charger will be readily available in more places and from more retailers.

Apple released the Smart Cover with the iPad 2 early last year and since then the cover has become a model for numerous third party accessory makers who have developed their own versions. However, according to a patent application put out by the United States Patent & Trademark Office, it appears that Apple is looking to take the technology in the Smart Cover one step further.

Since then publicizing of the patent, speculation on the web suggests that a new Smart Cover with a flexible AMOLED display, and even solar panels and a keyboard may be part of Apple’s upgrade to the cover. The touchscreen display on the cover is expected to display information such as emails, messages, and calendar events.The patent suggests that the inner cover would double as a keyboard and could house other technology such as a solar panel and the outer edge would have the ability to control other media such as music with pause and play controls.

According to Apple’s explanation in the patent, the Multi-Touch display in the cover “greatly enhances the overall functionality of the tablet device”. Considering that the current Smart Cover connects to the iPad via magnets, the Smart Cover in the patent would likely have to have some form of inductive charging to power the display and pull up information.

The patent lists the inventor of the tech as Fletcher Rothkopf, currently a product manager at Apple but has also dealt with design and iPod engineering. With this new Smart Cover, Apple can very well revolutionize what cases can do on a device and instead of being just a protective covering and an afterthought, can actually assist in the functionality of the device itself.

{via 9to5Mac}

Apple’s retail stores are truly one of a kind, blending materials such as glass and aluminum into intricate pieces of art that dress up any neighborhood they are built in. Apple intends to protect that idea, hoping to be the only one with a one of a kind experience for its customers. The latest act of preservation by the company is to patent the 54 foot tall, 75 foot wide and 30 foot deep glass design on its Apple Upper West Side store.

Details for the patent were revealed in a patent application earlier this week, published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patent filing focuses specifically on the curved glass roof of the store, located blocks from Lincoln Center and a few avenues from Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue Store. The support structure of the store are also parts of the filing, which highlights specific sections of the outer shell that adds to the design of the store.

The Upper West Side store opened in November of 2009, and since then has become one of the five stores in Manhattan. This latest patent comes only a week after the USPTO revealed plans to patent the cylindrical design of Apple’s main store in Shanghai, China.

Apple’s obsessive focus on the simplicity of its stores plays very well into the design of the store, which the company goes to great lengths to preserve and shelter from copycats. Much of this personal belief comes from the vision of former CEO and Chairman, Steve Jobs, who believed simplicity was the key to life, and vowed to preserve Apple’s ideas.

Apple Stores around the world receive about 18,000 visitors a week per store, with each store bringing in about $12.2 million in revenue. Apple has continued to expand its retail sector, focusing on countries such as China as well as larger cities in the United States.

{via Apple Insider}

The latest suit was mentioned in Apple’s complaint against Samsung and later discovered by FOSS Patents. Apple filed a complaint with the same court over the design of the Motorola XOOM. However, it’s worth noting that the filing doesn’t state whether it includes a request for preliminary injunction.

There isn’t a clear statutory limit, but German lawyers usually discourage such motions unless they are filed within one month of finding out about an infringement. It’s possible to get permanent injunctions even against older products, but for preliminary ones there must be a particular sense of urgency. It’s possible that Apple has also been aware of the Xoom for too long to file for a preliminary injunction at this stage.

Apple is potentially making it difficult for Android smartphone manufactures to sell their devices as patent infringement, if proven, could result in high licensing fees.

It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out between Apple and Motorola.

HTC’s CFO, Winston Yung, reportedly said, “We have to sit down and figure it out,” and further added, “We’re open to having discussions.”

The Taiwanese smartphone maker earlier this month announced that they acquired S3 Graphics Co. for $300 million. This deal came in less than a week after S3 Graphics won an ITC ruling against the Cupertino, Calif., based company.

Yung has expressed his company’s desire to engage in talks with Apple and commented:

We are open to all sorts of solutions, as long as the solution and the terms are fair and reasonable,

On and off we’ve had discussions with Apple, even before the initial determination came out.

Apple has been very aggressive in protecting its intellectual property and is already involved in many high profile patent cases. This year particularly has seen AAPL being sued by various companies alleging their own unique claim.

Patent infringement often leads to settlement between the companies involved however, this involves high amount of royalty and in some cases long term license payments.

It will be interesting to see how Apple and HTC settle the matter. Do you think the current patent system in the US is limiting innovation and competition? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

{via Bloomberg}

Richard “Chip” Lutton Jr., the current Chief Patent lawyer has been confirmed to be leaving the company according to a few anonymous sources, who released their information to Reuters.

Lutton’s voicemail was still set up at Apple on Monday, but he will be leaving Apple soon, perhaps in the next month, said the source familiar with the situation

It’s unclear why Lutton is leaving the company. Apple reportedly did not comment on the situation. Lutton was an integral part of Apple’s patents and has been heading high profile cases such as the Samsung Patent infringement case in the recent weeks.

Lutton mentioned that Apple is “one of the most secretive companies in the world” and that its announcements are “major events in the technology industry,” drawing a distinction between Samsung’s products and Apple’s. Lutton or Apple have yet to comment.

{via AppleInsider}

A new patent application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office could reveal the user interface for Apple’s upcoming iCloud service, in addition to a feature for “partial song syncing.” Entitled “Local Storage of a Portion of Streamed Media Items,” the application depicts an iTunes-like user interface and describes a feature that would store a sample of each of your songs locally on your device to ensure you get a seamless iCloud experience.

The idea behind a cloud-based music service is that you store your songs in a ‘digital locker’ online to save precious storage space on your device, and then access them from internet-connected devices such as the iPhone or iPad. So, surely storing previews of all of your songs locally defeats the object? Well, it does a little bit, but it will take up significantly less space than storing complete tracks and will ensure you get the smoothest possible experience.

The idea is that by storing a sample of each song on your device, when you skip between songs your device will begin by playing the preview while the rest of the song buffers in the background. This means that if you change the track and iCloud isn’t expecting it, you won’t have to wait a few seconds in between tracks for each song to load.

It’s a simple idea that I’m sure will make a huge difference to our user experience, and will be one the little details that makes iCloud better than its rivals from Amazon and Google.

Apple’s patent application describes the problem with these rival services:

When the electronic device is unaware of the next media item to play back, the electronic device can require undesired pauses between media items. Similarly, when a user skips to a different media item for playback, the electronic device can require a long pause during which no media item is played back as the new media item is streamed to the device.

I think you’ll agree that this sounds like another one of Apple’s simple but fantastic ideas. The only thing that I think does need work is that user interface. I know that it’s only a black & white patent image, but it looks like it needs a bit of work.

A new patent published by Patently Apple today reveals Apple’s plans to create a smart, interactive bezel for iOS devices, which would make those wasted areas around touch screens incredibly useful. The patent illustrates a bezel that lights up to display words or icons when required. It will be touch capacitive allowing users to interact with its messages, and opens up some great possibilities for iOS developers.

Apple describes the smart bezel as a “secondary display”, which features “Smart Indicators” in areas around the edge of the screen that can display information. For example, it could display icons that light up when we receive text messages, emails, or voicemails. They can be interactive so that users can press them to open up a message or email, but they don’t have to be.

The patent application has a nice long name: “Electronic Devices with a Primary Display and a Selective Illuminated Secondary Display.” Its possibilities would mean the way we use our iOS devices could change completely. Not only could it redefine the way in which we receive notifications, but it could also change the way we navigate and control these devices.

An interactive bezel could enable game developers to build controls into the areas around the screen that means a users fingers don’t have to obstruct their view of the game while they’re playing – a frustration I’ve always had with iOS gaming, especially with FPS games.

Hopefully this won’t be another Apple patent that demonstrates a product they’ve tested but decided not to develop. I’d love to see all of that space around the touch screens on my iOS devices actually have a decent purpose.

Do you think an interactive bezels a good idea, and how do you think it could be put to best use? Let us know in the comments!

{via Patently Apple}

The Mirror Worlds patent was allegedly infringed upon by Apple’s Spotlight, Time Machine and CoverFlow software, and the original case was found in favor of the patent-holders though Apple challenged that decision.

Now a Federal Judge in Texas has overturned the original decision, saying Apple didn’t infringe the patents while also saying the settlement figure was too high. Apple had also tried to claim the Mirror Worlds patents were not valid, though the Judge disagrees.

“Mirror Worlds may have painted an appealing picture for the jury, but it failed to lay a solid foundation sufficient to support important elements it was required to establish under the law,” U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis wrote.

Mirror Worlds believed Apple has violated three of its patents and sued the Cupertino outfit back in 2008. The result went their way and the company had been awarded $208.5 million for each patent, resulting in a final cost of $625.5 million – a not inconsiderable amount even for a company as wealthy as Apple.

When asked for comment by Bloomberg, Apple declined. Mirror Worlds had yet to respond, probably too busy scurrying to find more patents to go after Apple for.

An Apple patent application revealed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week, and first reported by AppleInsider, has confirmed that the Cupertino company is currently experimenting with a 3D camera for the iPhone. The patent is entitled “Systems and Methods for an Imaging System Using Multiple Image Sensors,” and uses dual cameras to capture, process and render 3D images.

Apple’s patent application describes its process as “a paradigm shift from the known software-based approaches,” which “guess” how to perform stereo disparity compensation and produce 3D images. Apple said that those guesses can result in poor quality photos that are littered with artifacts. Instead, Apple’s method uses a hardware-based system with a “deterministic calculation for stereo disparity compensation,” which will apparently produce better photos, and even 3D video.

The latest groundbreaking device to boast a similar feature is the Nintendo 3DS that launched earlier this week. This device also features dual-cameras capable of taking three-dimensional images, however, the device also uses a revolutionary 3D display to show this content without the need for additional 3D glasses. Apple’s device would also require a similar display to display 3D content.

Earlier reports of 3D Apple product surfaced back in 2009 when it experimented with head tracking technology to provide a 3D experience.

The iPhone and iPod touch devices have been major rivals to handheld consoles since their release, and by introducing 3D, Apple will ensure that other devices don’t get too far ahead.

Interestingly, one name that is conspicuously absent from all of these lawsuits is Google, who, as you know, makes the Android Operating System for smart-phones. However, it is worth noting that HTC is seen by many as Google’s proxy in one of these upcoming legal sparring matches, before the main event(s). And Apple (AAPL) is indeed suing HTC in a bid to ban its Android based smartphone imports to the US which Apple alleges infringe it’s patents. And, yawn, HTC is counter-suing.

On the table right now though is a continuation of the ITC suits between Nokia and Apple. Nokia is still the largest handset maker in the world, but its market dominance is coming under pressure from Apple and Google. So much so that Apple allege that Nokia is now fighting back by copying many of their ideas in order to create a competing product to the iPhone. Something which if Apple is able to convince the ITC of may enable them to ban Nokia’s imports into the US. In truth though, this is as likely as hell freezing over in.

Nokia’s perspective is that Apple has also stolen ideas from them (a proven market leader), and so should not be throwing stones from a legal position inside of a glass house. So they are in turn going after Apple to protect their own IP, and also point out that Apple actually imports its phones to the US from abroad too!

So what is this all about?

Apple’s ultimate aim is to dominate the smartphone market, and to eventually even stifle it’s direct US based competition from Google’s Android and the handsets that it runs on that are imported to the US by companies like HTC, which Apple also contests violates its US patents.

“Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours,” Bruce Sewell, Apple’s general counsel, said in a Dec. 11, 2009, statement on the Nokia case.

But then Apple’s strategy is basically the same one that Google, HTC, Microsoft and just about every other smart phone manufacturer also has. And these are all huge companies with massive resources. So something somewhere is going to give at some point. And when that happens it is quite likely that the various companies involved will simply work out some kind of patent licensing deal.

But it will get bloody first.

Why they can’t just sit down and compromise now is something that we will all have to just accept, because none of these companies are going to give an inch in what is ultimately going to have to be a mediated situation.

Of course the devil is always in the details, and Apple is intent on going to this particular courtroom gun fight with some serious muscle, and the aim of emerging on top of the scrum of warring companies with the best deal it can walk away with.

Accordingly Apple has hired lawyers who are equally impressive in their credentials as the company they are now working for. In fact a couple of the lawyers Apple now has on retainer have even made Apple pay out big bucks to other rival firms before!

Business Week report that :

Apple has hired some of the nation’s top patent lawyers as outside counsel. They include Robert Krupka of Kirkland & Ellis, who negotiated a 2005 settlement in which Apple agreed to pay $100 million to Creative Technology Ltd., maker of the Zen music player; William Lee of WilmerHale in Boston, who successfully represented Broadcom Corp. in its fight against Qualcomm; and Matt Powers of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, who successfully defended the patent on Merck & Co.’s biggest product, the $4.7 billion-a-year asthma drug Singulair.

Apple have also recently brought more in house legal muscle on board in the form of Noreen Krall, previously the chief IP counsel of Sun Systems and a staff attorney at IBM.

For those of you with long memories you may find some similarities between what is happening now in the smartphone market place and what went on a handful of decades ago in the personal computer market.

Who is most likely to emerge triumphant from this round of the smartphone wars? Have your say in the comments.

This is an intriguing and exciting Patent from Apple. And in my opinion one of the things that makes Apple special.

Solar powered mobile devices have been a bit of a dud in the tech world to date. So much so that even low cost portable devices in Africa tend to be powered by hand wound chargers rather than solar power, even today! And Africa is hardly a country lacking in outside areas or sun!

One of the problems with Solar Powered packs for laptops and other devices is that they either have to be laid out as an ungainly accessory attached via USB, or are typically on the case of the device in an area that is not often pointed upwards when the device is being used.

This patent from Apple describes a way to put their solar cell technology behind the touch layer of the screens of iPads, iPhones and the iPod Touch – which is after all one of the largest surface areas of the devices, and also typically points skywards! Presumably this technology could also find its way into laptop screens.

This is the kind of neat technology that makes Apple cool. Whilst we probably won’t see this technology in Apple devices in 2010, it may start to trickle out in 2011.

Imagine how much more life you’ll get out of your iPod Touch, or your iPad’s battery when riding your bike, or sitting on the beach!