Patents Expiring in 2027

How Touchscreens Show and Snap Back When You Scroll Past an Edge

Apple's 2008 patent describes how a touchscreen device displays a blank area when a user scrolls past the edge of a document, then smoothly snaps the document back into place when the user lifts their finger.

How Your Phone Knows When It's Against Your Ear

This Apple patent describes how a phone uses both a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor to accurately detect when it's held to your ear, preventing accidental screen touches during calls.

Device for Receiving and Processing TV Signals from Cables and Wireless Sources

This patent describes a device that combines signals from a cable TV line and a wireless source, processes them to create copy-protected video and audio, and sends them to a TV or other device.

How Touchscreens Handle Scrolling and Rubber-Band Effects

This patent describes the software logic that allows touchscreens to distinguish between simple scrolling and multi-finger gestures, while also enabling the signature 'rubber-band' bounce effect when you reach the end of a page.

How Touchscreens Use Math to Recognize Your Fingers

Apple's patent on using mathematical ellipses to track and identify individual fingers and palms on a touch-sensitive surface.

How the iPhone Switches and Adds Mobile Web Browser Tabs

Apple's 2007 patent on using swipes, edge taps, and dedicated buttons to create and flip through multiple full-screen windows in a mobile web browser.

How Smartphones Suggest and Correct Words While You Type

Apple's patent on a system that displays word suggestions above a touchscreen keyboard, allowing users to accept or reject them with simple taps or keystrokes.

How to Automatically Generate Musical Harmonies from Audio

This 2012 patent describes a system that listens to music and automatically generates harmony notes to accompany a melody, even detecting and ignoring accidental strums on stringed instruments.

How Touchscreens Save Battery by Sleeping Between Touches

A power-saving method for touchscreens that puts the main processor to sleep when not in use and wakes it up only when a touch is detected.

How Touchscreens Precisely Align Signals to Detect Your Touch

Apple's patent describes a way for touchscreens to adjust the timing of internal electrical signals so they perfectly match the signals coming from your finger, making touch detection more accurate.

How Computers Safely Resume Interrupted Data Backups

A method for computers to pause a large data backup and resume exactly where they left off without restarting the entire process from scratch.

How Computers Automatically Organize and Search Photos Using Contextual Data

A system for indexing images by attaching descriptive data to objects within them and adjusting search rankings based on how often a user searches for those specific items.

Improving Drug Delivery with Chemical Masks for Thiazolo-Pyrimidine Compounds

A patent describing modified chemical structures that act as dormant precursors, designed to be activated by the body to help treat viral infections like Hepatitis C.

How Trampoline Hook Elements Prevent Strap Wear

A design for a trampoline hook that separates the two ends of a support strap to prevent them from rubbing together and wearing out.

BlackBerry Device with QWERTY Keyboard and Trackball Design

This 2012 patent describes a handheld device, like an early BlackBerry, with a QWERTY keyboard and a trackball, focusing on the physical arrangement of keys around the navigation tool.