Apple Wins iChat and Major Tablet Patent Prior to Launch
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 13 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. Without a doubt the granted patent that screams out this morning is one that relates to Apple's forthcoming Tablet.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's tablet push has been building in the patent record since at least its 2006 Tablet Mac filings, and the arc accelerated three weeks ago with the company revealing new touch-screen technology pitched at an iPhone-and-tablet future. Today's batch of 13 granted patents — including the iChat grant and a major tablet-related award published on the eve of Apple's San Francisco creation event — lands while anticipation is running so hot that live-blogging services were reportedly overwhelmed by traffic around Apple's latest event.
First-order effects
- Apple walks into its expected tablet unveiling holding granted USPTO claims over key interface territory, meaning competitors who ship similar touch-driven designs inherit immediate infringement exposure rather than facing pending applications.
- Publishers are directly in scope: the Wall Street Journal's syndicated framing ('Apple Tablet Portends Rewrite for Publishers') reflects confirmed reports of iBooks, an ePub-based bookstore priced around $12.99–$14.99, arriving alongside the hardware.
Second-order effects
- Apple's ePub storefront forces existing e-book distributors to compete against a hardware owner that controls both the device and the default bookstore, shifting bargaining power toward whoever sets the price band publishers must accept.
- Other handset and PC makers weighing tablet entries must now design around granted Apple claims or budget for licensing and litigation, raising the effective cost floor of the category before it even opens.
Third-order effects
- If Apple keeps converting interface concepts into granted patents timed to each launch — a cadence already visible across the 2006-to-2010 filings — pre-launch patent publication becomes standard practice as defensive positioning in consumer electronics, with the USPTO's grant queue effectively setting the terms of competition.
- The bundling of hardware, interface patents, and a proprietary-priced content store points toward vertically integrated platforms becoming the structural unit of the tablet and e-reading markets, squeezing single-layer players such as standalone readers and software-only bookstores.
The trend: Consumer-device launches are increasingly preceded by strategic patent grants that convert interface designs into enforceable market boundaries, with Apple's tablet filings the clearest current example.