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Trademark filing suggests MacBook Pro OLED touch panel will be called the Magic Toolbar

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Apple may not have officially stated that it’s launching new Macs this month, but the date is at least official and everyone is expecting it to be all about the Macs. Star of the show looks set to be a major revamp of the MacBook Pro line-up, with an OLED touch-bar replacing physical function keys as the headline new feature.

Trademark agent Brian Conroy (aka The Trademark Ninja) thinks he knows the name of the feature: the Magic Toolbar …

He reports that the name was registered back in February in the computer hardware category by a dummy corporation. The company which filed the application, Presto Apps America LLC, was incorporated just two weeks earlier.

Conroy says there are two reasons to believe that Apple is behind the filing. First, simple logic suggests that as Apple already owns the trademarks for Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard, it wouldn’t make sense for anyone else to spend money registering a trademark that Apple could easily contest on that basis.

Another company would have to be 100% certified insane to spend €16,000 ($17,500) in outlay for a trademark application that someone with the clout of Apple was almost certain to be able to object to and defeat. And that’s the main reason that I’m putting my neck on the line and saying that ‘Presto Apps America LLC’ is actually Apple.

But he also believes there’s a ‘smoking gun’: the lawyers listed on the Magic Toolbar application are the same ones which applied for the AirPod trademark. He also notes what seems to be less than coincidental timing. We recently described the legal manoeuvre Apple uses to quietly register trademarks overseas in order to claim them globally six months later. Conroy says the date the trademark was granted in Benelux countries means the latest date on which Apple can claim the trademark in the U.S. and elsewhere is … the day before the Mac launch.

Seems a pretty persuasive case – though it’s of course possible that Apple simply wants to stop other companies attempting to use the name. Let us know in the comments whether you buy it.

Via TNW. Concept image: Martin Hajek.

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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