Apple Granted Design Patents for Unibody MacBook Pro/Air, Glass Trackpad

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Bryan Chaffin

6:37 PM, Mar. 2nd ET, 2010

Articles by Author Bryan Chaffin on Twitter Contact Author Bio

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Apple Inc. has been granted design patents for the Unibody MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, as well as a separate design patent for the glass trackpad used in the current line of portable Macs. The patents were applied for in 2009 for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, and in 2008 for the trackpad.

Design patents, as the name suggests, cover only the design of a product, meaning that Apple is protected against other company making a copycat portable laptop that looks like Apple's MacBook Pro or Air. Design patents do not cover, for instance, the manufacturing processes or other technologies that may have gone into actually making the devices.

All three design patents list Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive, along with several other engineers and designers at the company. All three were issued March 2nd, 2010.

Thanks to Patently Apple for the heads up on the patents. You can find the patents in the above links.

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