Apple granted 29 patents, including for first iPad design

Apple has been granted 29 patents, including one crediting the late Steve Jobs and other Apple employees for the original iPad design and another related to crack-resistant glass.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published notice of the newly granted patents today, according to Patently Apple, with most related to components and techniques.

Notably, Apple received a patent related to the design of the original iPad, which was released in 2010. The patent, No. D670,286, covers the "ornamental design for a portable display device." It credits Jobs; Jony Ive, Apple's senior vice president of industrial design; and several other team members.

Another design patent is related to retail packaging, called "the ornamental design for a display apparatus."

In the world of mobiles, patents have become a key focus area and battleground. Apple, Samsung, and others have sued each other repeatedly, accusing each other of ripping off designs and other elements. Apple won a big battle against Samsung in August, with a jury finding Samsung infringed on Apple patents and ordering it to pay Apple $1 billion. Among the victories in that case, the jury found Samsung infringed on design patents for some products, and it upheld certain Apple utility and design patents.

Apple continues to build its patent arsenal. Today's awards follow several dozen the company has won in the past several months. Last month, it won over 30 patents that ranged from Apple TV to 3D technology.

Along with the iPad patents, Apple received a patent for crack-resistant glass for portable devices, a couple others related to hardware cooling systems, as well as one for iDevice photo management. The photo patent covers steps such as digital photography, photo editing, and e-mailing photos.

Apple also got a patent released to the process for making its iconic Apple logo glow on MacBooks, and another for techniques to adjust the audio output of devices.

Other patents Apple was granted include two wireless patents it acquired from Nortel and a patent related to FileVault, which is a method for performing encryption and decryption on Macs.

Here are the remaining patents, via Patently Apple:

•8,307,287 -- Heads-up-display for use in a media manipulation operation (Note: this has nothing to do with video glasses, according to Patently Apple.)

•8,305,125 -- Low latency synchronizer circuit

•8,305,897 -- Quality of service control in multiple hop wireless communication environments

•8,306,034 -- Method for updating and managing synchronization identifier by using release messages or status request and response

•8,306,367 -- Method and apparatus for managing image-processing operations

•8,306,475 -- Method and apparatus for configuring a wireless device through reverse advertising

•8,306,772 -- Method for estimating temperature at a critical point

•8,306,918 -- Use of media storage structure with multiple pieces of content in a content-distribution system (Relates to Digital Rights Mgmt. System)

•8,307,107 -- Titled "Methods and apparatuses to extend header for transferring data." Apple's invention relates to the field of multimedia data transmission.

•8,307,134 -- Multiple communication interfaces on a portable storage device

•8,307,146 -- Communication between a host device and an accessory via an intermediate device

•8,307,224 -- Methods and apparatuses for dynamic power control

•8,307,236 -- Oversampling-based scheme for synchronous interface communication

•8,307,366 -- Post-processing phase in a distributed processing system using assignment information

•RE43,796 -- Receptacle connector

•8,307,292 -- Method and apparatus for binding user interface objects to application objects

•8,307,004 -- Manipulating electronic backups

•8,306,252 -- Integrated microphone assembly for personal media device