The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has today granted five design patents to Apple, covering the Shanghai Apple Store Glass entrance, Beats headphones, EarPods, Lightning to USB cable and the original iPod Nano. According to PatentlyApple, the late CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs has been noted as being one of the co-designers of the Apple Store Glass entrance.
Among the five patents granted to Apple today, the best invention / design relates to the Shanghai Apple Store glass entrance which includes a plurality of glass layers that are curved. The building also includes glass fins and glass beams for support and a glass roof. “The glass building panels, glass fins, glass beams, and glass roof may be connected together by a plurality of fittings”.
An embodiment of the present invention discloses a building panel, including a single, or monolithic glass piece, wherein the glass piece is substantially rectangular and includes two opposing long sides extending in a height direction and two opposing short sides extending substantially in a width direction, and wherein the glass piece forms a circular arc when viewed from either of the two opposing short sides.
The source also points out that this is the second Beats related design patent granted to Apple over the last month.
