Apple snags design patents for Steve Jobs and Jony Ive’s iPhone 4, iPad 2
Steve Jobs’ impact on Apple (AAPL) is still being felt more than a year after his passing. According to patents discovered by AppleInsider, Apple now owns the patent to the iPhone 4 and its external antenna design, iPad 2, Smart Cover, iPhone 4/4S Bumper, L-shaped MagSafe found on previous generation MacBooks. The patents are accredited to the late Jobs and Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of Industrial Design. As designers and artists, as Jobs liked to be called, both men were responsible for designing Apple’s most iconic products since Jobs returned to Apple in 1996.
Interestingly enough, none of the devices are identified by their marketing names, with the iPhone 4 called an “Electronic Device,” iPad 2 a “House for an Electronic Device,” Smart Cover a “Cover,” and MagSafe a “Connector.” Apple is currently locked in global lawsuits with rival Samsung (005930) over patent designs of its hardware and software related to its iPhone, iPad and iOS. Apple’s newly awarded patents will only give serve as more ammunition to fend off “copycats.”
