Apple awarded glass-on-metal trackpad design patent
The next time you sit down at an aluminum unibody MacBook and glide your finger atop the trackpad, you can take pride in knowing that the design of that trackpad has been issued a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Design patent D674382 was published today under the rather mundane title "Portable computer" and is for the "ornamental design for a portable computer." Other than a group of drawings showing that the patent is for the trackpad and no other element of the MacBook design, there's not a lot of detail.
Probably the most notable feature of the design patent document is that it includes two very familiar names in the list of inventors: Jonathan P. Ive and Steve Jobs. The design patent has a life of 14 years, and is associated with a string of application continuations starting in 2008.
