Apple has been granted several patents by the US Patent & Trademark Office. Following is a summary of each.

Patent 7,992,097 is for select drag and drop operations on video thumbnails across clip boundaries and involves iMovie. A computer-implemented method includes displaying, within a user interface in a digital media system, a media pane, and a project pane, displaying, within the media pane, a thumbnail group representing a media item, the thumbnail group comprising one or more thumbnails, enabling a user to select, from the thumbnail group, a segment of the media item, and enabling a user to transfer the selected segment to the project pane. Randy Ubillos is the inventor.

Patent 7,990,398 is for matching movement behavior in motion graphics and involves Apple's Motion software. Computer-implemented methods and media bearing instructions for matching movements of objects are described. In one example, the method can include determining a position of a first point in a first coordinate system, converting the position of the first point from the first coordinate system to a second coordinate system, performing a transformation on a second point in the second coordinate system, wherein the second point is initialized to a starting position in the second coordinate system, determining an ending position of the second point in the second coordinate system based on the transformation, converting the ending position of the second point in the second coordinate system to the first coordinate system, and associating the ending position of the second point in the first coordinate system to the first point in the first coordinate system, wherein the associating causes a transformation of the first point to match the transformation performed on the second point. The inventors are Jean-Francois Pelletier, Gregory Niles, Stephen Sheeler and William Stein.

Patent 7,990,789 involves a multiple threshold voltage register file cell. Per the patent, a memory circuit may include a pair of cross-coupled inverters configured to store a bit of data and a first transistor coupled to a first node of the pair of cross-coupled inverters. A plurality of transistors that form the pair of inverters have a first nominal threshold voltage. The first transistor is coupled to a first bit line, and has a second nominal threshold voltage that is lower than the first nominal threshold voltage.

The first transistor may be a write transistor and another write transistor having the second nominal threshold voltage is coupled to the other node of the pair of cross-coupled inverters. A register file may include a bit storage section that includes at least one pair of the cross-coupled inverters; a write transistor section and a read transistor section having the second nominal threshold voltage. The inventors are Honkai Tam, Sribalan Santhanam, Jung-Cheng Yeh and Sanjay P. Zambare.

Patent 7,990,919 involves techniques for reducing communication errors in a wireless communication system. A technique for operating a wireless communication device includes transmitting a scheduling request from the wireless communication device and receiving, following the scheduling request, an uplink grant that assigns an uplink channel to the wireless communication device. A time period between the scheduling request and the uplink grant is determined. Only channel quality information is transmitted in the uplink channel when the uplink grant requests the channel quality information and the time period is less than a predetermined time period. Jayesh Kotecha is the inventor.

Patent 7,991,637 is for freeform communication in a calendaring system. A method of sharing a calendar between a plurality of users is described where the calendar is capable of holding one or more events. The method includes providing the calendar to each of said plurality of users. The method further includes allowing any of the plurality of users to add to the calendar a new event, a change to an event and a message relating to an event.

The method further includes providing a new event, change to an event and/or message added by a user to the other users including automatically displaying at least one updated calendar to its respective other user without said other user having to cause said updated calendar to be fetched through a network. The inventors are Bertrand Guiheneuf, Sebastien Maury, Olivier Gutknecht and Julien Jalon.

Patent 7,991,720 involves a method and apparatus for organizing information in a computer system and involves Apple's "Piles" technology. The method and apparatus include the creation of a pile comprising a collection of documents and displaying a graphical representation of the collection of documents. The method and apparatus further include browsing the collection of documents by pointing a cursor at a particular item in the collection of documents to reveal an indicia for the particular item in the collection of documents.

The filing system can automatically divide a pile (e.g. a collection of documents from an electronic mail network) into subpiles on the basis of the content of each document in the pile, and the filing system, at the user's request can automatically file away documents into existing piles in the computer system on the basis of a similarity match between the content (or other internal representation) of the document and the content (or other internal representation) of existing piles in the computer system.

The filing system can also create a pile from a sample document by using the internal representation of the document as the internal representation of the new pile. The computer filing system provides various interfaces in connection with piles to the user of the system to provide feedback and other information to the user, including information concerning the documents and piles in the computer's filing system. The inventors are Richard Mander, Daniel E. Rose, Gitta Salomon, Yin Yin Wong, Timothy Oren, Susan Booker and Stephanie Houde.

Patents 7,991,738, 7,991,740 and 7,991,834 involve synchronization methods and systems, a synchronization server process, and a method and apparatus for updating and synchronizing information between a client and a server. The inventors are Gordon J. Freedman and Jacob Farkas.

Patent 7,991,781 is for a system and method for storing and retrieving filenames and files in computer memory. The invention receives a request to store a file having a filename written in a first text encoding, converts the filename into a Unicode filename and stores the Unicode filename and the file into memory. The invention then sets a flag, associated with the memory, indicating that a first text encoding has been used.

To retrieve a Unicode filename, the invention receives a request to locate a Unicode filename from memory. Next, the invention uses a predetermined text encoding to convert the filename into Unicode. The invention then searches for the Unicode filename in the memory. If the Unicode filename is not found, the invention uses a next text encoding from the set of text encodings which have been used, to repeat the conversion and searches the memory until the Unicode filename is identified. Lastly, the Unicode file is retrieved. The inventors are Mark S. Day, Donald J. Brady and Deric S. Horn.

Patent 7,991,808 involves per thread garbage collection. Objects associated only with a thread that created them are tracked. At a garbage collection time for a particular thread, it is determined which objects associated only with that thread remain reachable from a restricted root set associated with the thread. Any thread-only objects that are not determined to be reachable are garbage collected. The inventors are Gerald Blaine Garst Jr., Gregory Robert Parker, Douglas Joshua Behnke and Patrick C. Beard.

Patent 7,991,928 is for a retry mechanism. Per the patent, a n interface unit may comprise a buffer configured to store requests that are to be transmitted on an interconnect and a control unit coupled to the buffer. In one embodiment, the control unit is coupled to receive a retry response from the interconnect during a response phase of a first transaction for a first request stored in the buffer. The control unit is configured to record an identifier supplied on the interconnect with the retry response that identifies a second transaction that is in progress on the interconnect.

The control unit is configured to inhibit reinitiation of the first transaction at least until detecting a second transmission of the identifier. In another embodiment, the control unit is configured to assert a retry response during a response phase of a first transaction responsive to a snoop hit of the first transaction on a first request stored in the buffer for which a second transaction is in progress on the interconnect. The control unit is further configured to provide an identifier of the second transaction with the retry response. The inventors are James B. Keller, Sridhar P. Subramanian and Ramesh Gunna.

Patent 7,992,101 is for a method and apparatus for controlling a display of a data processing system. Method and apparatus for controlling a display of a data processing system. According to one embodiment of the invention, a method of controlling a display of a data processing system includes: displaying a first list as a scrollable view of items in a first mode; receiving an input to switch from the first mode to a second mode; and displaying, in the second mode, a representation of a command which when activated causes a display of a second list of the items.

The first list is displayed within a window and the representation is displayed within the window. According to another embodiment of the invention, a method of controlling a display of a data processing system includes: displaying, in a first mode, a slider control having a slider which can be positioned in one of a plurality of positions to select a corresponding one of a plurality of parameters; receiving an input to switch from the first mode to a second mode; and displaying, in the second mode, a representation of a command which when activated causes a display of a list of items corresponding to at least a subset of the plurality of parameters. The inventors are Imran Chaudhri and Bas Ording.

Also, Apple was granted two design patents. Patent D652,563 is for the 2010 iPod touch with HD camera and design patent D642,560 is for the MacBook Air design. Jody Akana, Bartley Andre, Jeremy Bataillou, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Evans Hankey, Richard Howarth, Jonathan Ive, Steve Jobs, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang and Rico Zorkendorfer are the inventors of both patents.

-- Dennis Sellers