Apple gets patent to the page turn

Last week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple the patent for virtual page-turning 

Apple filed for the patent in December 2011, long after the release of its iBooks software in April 2010.

The patent D670,713 gives Apple exclusive rights to the page turn in an e-reader application. Apple argued that its page turn was a special type of animation that othe types of e-reader had been unable to create.

The patent that has been granted is a design patent, intended to protect the look and feel of the software, not a utility patent, which would include the function of being able to move from one page to another.

Apple was also granted 37 other patents dealing with location services, channel scanning and multi-touch gesture functionality.

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