The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has today approved Apple’s application for a registered trademark for “iAd,” 21 months after the Cupertino company first applied for it.
Apple launched iAd as a contender to Google’s AdMob service back in July 2010, following its acquisition of Quattro Wireless, which specialized in mobile advertising, two months earlier. The service first made its debut in iOS 4, and it allowed developers to monetize their iOS apps with interactive ads selected by Apple.
iAd got off to a slow start, despite a number of big companies signing up from the outset, because Apple priced the service far too high; the minimum buy-in initially was a whopping $1 million. Apple has since reduced that several times — first to $500,000, and then again to just $100,000.
Back in April 2012, the company also increased the iAd revenue share for developers from 60% to 70%.
Source: Patently Apple
