Apple was granted the equivalent of almost six patents per day in 2018, racking up more than 2,000 over the year.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ranks Apple No. 11 on a list of companies awarded the greatest number of patents. So, who beat Apple at the patent game in 2018?
3oogle is taking the folding phone concept to the extreme. It dreamed up a concept design reminiscent of a book with several pages, each of which is a flexible display.
Microsoft proposes combining two very different peripherals. It dreamed up a tablet stylus that when not in use wraps around the user’s ear to become a wireless headset.
Is there a point to such a stylus? It’s debatable.
Future iPhones and Apple Watches could pack “smell recognition capabilities,” based on some new patent filings submitted by Apple.
The iPhone-maker has been researching ways to detect air pollution and other dangerous chemicals with tiny sensors that could be integrated into its products. In the new patents, Apple describes how it could use multiple sensors to detect things like spoiled food, body odor and maybe even blood sugar levels.
Crowding a group of people into a selfie can be challenging. Seems someone always ends up halfway out of the picture. Apple has a solution: it’s developing a way to automatically combine multiple images into a group selfie.
This could become a part of iOS 13 this fall, perhaps as a new feature in the iPhone XI.
The Face ID biometric security system is already extremely accurate but Apple wants to make it even more safe. The company has come up with a method for telling the difference between two people who are almost identical because they’re closely related.
The system would also prevent unlocking iPhone and iPad devices with 3D masks.
Apple claims that Qualcomm’s motivation for taking Apple to court is because it was upset that Apple had switched to using Intel chips in iPhones. Prior to 2016, Qualcomm had enjoyed five years of being Apple’s exclusive chip maker.
The suggestion was made by Apple’s counsel in closing remarks Wednesday during the patent infringement trial in San Diego.
Apple wants to use encryptions to make “stingray” phone spying tools obsolete. The move is likely to be controversial because while these are used by criminals they are also employed by police.
Apple is on the receiving end of a new lawsuit, claiming that it is infringing more than seven patents relating to LTE cellular standards. The lawsuit potentially affects devices including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and others.
The lawsuit was filed by multiple firms under the umbrella group Optis Wireless Technology. They are asking for damages “in the form of reasonable royalties.”
Qualcomm has seemingly made a big tactical error in the pre-trial run-up to its infringement court case with Apple — and now it’s trying to get out of it.
According to a report of the events, Qualcomm failed to dispute Apple’s legal argument that certain patents in the case were either invalid or that it did not infringe on them as suggested. Now that we’re closer to the trial, Qualcomm’s lawyers have seemingly realized that this wasn’t the best idea. And the judge isn’t too impressed.
