Apple Now Owns Design Patent for iPhone and iPod touch

Apple has been busy lately in safe-guarding the design and innovation of its products by taking legal cover of patent grant policy. Last month, we saw how Apple filed a legal suit against HTC, for its alleged involvement in infringing 20 iPhone OS patents "related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture, and hardware”.

iPhone Design Patent

Although Apple might be already having enough patents and patent applications to protect its product from piracy, one patent that they must have been keen to get is the design patent for its original iPhone and iPod touch, and why not when these two products effectively changed the way we use smartphones today. Since the said products now forms the backbone of the Cupertino-based company, a design patent would precisely means that you can’t make a brazen copy of the iPhone and iPod touch’s "Ornamental design". It would only cover the "ornamental design" of the devices and not their functionality. This would in simple words mean that any other devices that would look a little too similar to iPhone or iPod touch will have to be dealt with Apple’s legal department.

But one question to ponder on, is this law applicable outside United States territory? If the answer is "No" , then how would Apple stop iPhone Cloning by Chinese? [via MacStories & Gizmodo]

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