Apple wins patent for inductive charging station

Apple has been granted a batch of patents today by the US Patent and Trademark Office—27 new patents to be exact. PatentlyApple dug up the details on these patents, pointing out some of the more notable ones including an inductive charging station for handsets as well as iOS scrolling, rotating, and scaling on a touchscreen display.

The patent for the inductive charging station supports rumors that Apple has been developing a wireless charging dock for future iPhones. Illustrations from the patent reveal that the docking station will include a re-radiating antenna and an inductive charging circuit. The dock can house devices both standing upright or in other orientations. The patent was first filed back in Q1 of 2008 and was credited to Victor Tiscareno, John Tang, and Stephen Zadesky.

Apple was also granted patents for scrolling lists, translating, rotating, and scaling of electronic documents on touchscreen devices, all of which add more ammo to Apple's legal arsenal. Still other patents granted to Apple today include a light sensitive display, a method and apparatus for checking an acoustic test fixture, an uninterrupted VPN connection service, application of speed effects to a video presentation, incremental secure backup and and restore of user settings and data.