Apple granted 10 patents for design

The USPTO awarded 10 design patents to Apple on Tuesday. The patents include one for the white Apple iPhone 4. Originally filed in the 3rd quarter of 2010, the Cupertino based firm was awarded patent D644,218. The white Apple iPhone 4 was delayed from launch due to problems with the leakage of light, showing that even Apple can mess up with a design every now and then. The pale variant of Apple's touchscreen handset was finally launched this past April, as we reported.

Patent D644,238 was originally filled in November 2009 and relates to the various layers of the virtual QWERTY on the phone. Other design patents awarded to the company revolve around the Apple iPhone's UI and 5 icons for Camera, Podcasts, Photos, Artists and Featured. Each of the icons are pictured with the corresponding patent number underneath it.

While always important, patents have become a very valuable corporate asset these days in light of the many lawsuits going back and forth in the cellular industry relating to alleged patent infringement. And of course, getting its hand on Motorola's patent portfolio was the reason behind Google's proposed purchase of Motorola Mobility. We recently told you that with 1,000 patents to its name, Apple trails other big companies in the industry like Samsung, Nokia, Motorola and LG.

source: PatentlyApple via MobileSyrup