One of the selling points of the iPhone 5s is the highly-anticipated fingerprint sensor branded as Touch ID, which will soon be trademarked, as Patently Apple has found.
Earlier this week, Apple filed for a “Touch ID” trademark under serial numbers 86176209 and 86176178 at the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), under two international classes: international class 009 and 0035.
The first (IC 009), besides telephones, covers the following, among others: tablet computers, handheld digital electronic devices, televisions, television set-top boxes, audio players, video players, etc.
The second (IC 035) is even more interesting, as it covers besides business consulting services (which may be irrelevant in our case): business services, namely providing computer databases regarding the purchase and sale of a wide variety of products and services of others; retail store services, online retail store services, etc.
Touch ID is expected to be a key element of Apple’s rumoured digital wallet system. Tim Cook emphasized during the quarterly earnings call that customers love to pay for music and apps using Touch ID on their iPhone.
