Patent News - Mobile Video and iPod
Several developments at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) have stirred the Apple rumor mill once again. Most recently, Apple updated its iPod trademark to include video functionality, cracking the door a bit more on a possible video-enabled device. Specifically, the company updated the description of its portable player to include "recording, organizing, transmitting, manipulating, and reviewing text, data, audio, image, and video files." Meanwhile, Steve Jobs continues to downplay the possibility of a video-enabled iPod, and portable video players remain a niche market.
Elsewhere, Apple received a bounceback from the USPTO. The Patent Office issued a non-final rejection on a concept describing the specifics for a user interface that apply to the iPod. In the rejection, the examiner reportedly referenced an earlier patent from John Platt, currently a Microsoft researcher and former employee for touchpad firm Synaptics. �Platt discloses an apparatus and a method of assisting user interaction with a multimedia asset player by way of a hierarchically ordered user interface,� the USPTO explained. The Apple patent was filed by iTunes engineer Jeffrey Robbins and Steve Jobs on September 26th, 2002. The company now has three months to appeal the decision.
Posted by keefner at August 11, 2005 02:19 PM