Today is launch day for Apple's iPhone® 3G. I am always interested in tracking down published patent applications for new products, and this was no exception.

The problem is that, besides Apple being so prolific, electronic inventions are often covered by a mixture of new and old patent applications and by copyright.

It's usually hard/ impossible without expert knowledge to track the right ones down.

A search on Google led me to a story about the USPTO having just published the application for what the writer believed was the technology in the new iPhone.

It includes a link to the American patent application, and depicts the main illustration, also shown below left.

Yes, the American application was published on the 29 May. What the writer didn't realise was that the same invention was published in the PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) system to request protection across much of the world on the 13 March, 10 weeks earlier.

The Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Determining Commands by Applying Heuristics is by numerous inventors, including Steve Jobs.

It has no fewer than 501 pages, including some 300 pages of drawings. Forecasts are that it will be a huge success, as the iPhone now offers the iPod, high-speed web connections and easy-to-use GPS.

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By Steve Van Dulken  on   Jul 11,2008

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Keywords

iphone    patent    Steve van Dulken    Steve Jobs   

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