Apple on Tuesday was granted a patent that uses facial recognition technology to control a computing device, like an iPhone, iPad or Mac, allowing for a more secure and productive operating environment.

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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday awarded Apple a patent for a camera system that uses a microlens adaptor to enable refocusing of an image after the initial shot is taken, much like the Lytro light-field camera.

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Apple's expert witness on damages, a certified public accountant from Chicago, was the person who sealed the iPhone maker's victory in its patent infringement retrial against rival Samsung, according to members of the eight-person jury.

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A jury of eight granted Apple $290 million in damages from rival Samsung on Thursday, in exchange for the South Korean electronics maker copying the patented software and hardware designs of the iPhone and iPad.

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The United States Patent & Trademark Office on Thursday published an Apple patent application covering the electronic packaging and sapphire lens of the company's new Touch ID fingerprint sensors.

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More than week into the retrial between Apple and Samsung, jurors are still deliberating how much money to award Apple for patent infringement by Samsung. But the jury has already come to a negative conclusion about their daily sourdough bread sandwiches.

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Apple's Siri may soon get more of a human touch as the Cupertino company is investigating the viability of using crowd-sourced information to broaden the virtual assistant's answer database.

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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday published an Apple patent describing a "button" that is not only touch sensitive, but can detect multiple levels of pressure, allowing for an input method advanced beyond anything available today.

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Apple gained two favorable court decisions in its patent battles with Google's Motorola subsidiary today, one in Germany and other at the U.S. International Trade Commission.

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An Apple patent filing published on Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office details a wireless network sharing technology that leverages low-power Bluetooth instead of Wi-Fi, making it a prime candidate for small devices like the much-rumored "iWatch."

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In an interesting and somewhat exhaustive patent awarded to Apple on Tuesday, the company outlines technology that can adaptively track a user's location and use the data to intelligently control secondary devices at another locale, such as home appliances.

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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday published an Apple patent application for a unique solar-ready power management system that can be integrated into the company's portable product lineup, negating the need for bulky external converters.

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An Apple invention filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday describes a system that can automatically perform media playback operations based on a human's features, like stopping an adult movie when a child enters the room.

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While Apple and book publishers have yet to come to an agreement on gifting e-books, the company is making active preparations for a possible rollout with a unique gifting method that allows users to buy and personalize items in-app.

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Some nine months after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a tentative first Office action invalidating an Apple multitouch patent credited in part to cofounder Steve Jobs, the body has reversed its initial determination to confirm all claims as patentable.

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Seeking a détente in the ongoing antitrust case brought against it by the European Union, Samsung has offered to put a halt to lawsuits over standard-essential patents for a period of five years.

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In a court filing made last week, it was revealed that Apple has officially lodged an appeal of unfavorable decisions made by the U.S. International Trade Commission in its decision to levy an import ban against certain Samsung products.

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Apple is looking into a new desktop user interface that puts two- and three-dimensional application windows in a unique browsable "parade" view, much like the company's Cover Flow GUI used in iTunes and iOS apps.

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In 2007 Apple introduced iPhone, emphasizing that virtually every significant aspect of its entirely new experience and industrial design was protected by patents. So far, however, the U.S. patent system has provided inconsistent protections for Apple inventions, while at the same time supporting dubious patent monetization schemes brought against the company.

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A new patent application from Apple reveals that the company is working on mechanisms that will eliminate the need for a SIM ejector tool and its resulting internal hardware, potentially allowing the iPhone maker to build future handsets with even slimmer form factors.

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