Apple granted eight patents in December, and the patent office published applications for 12 others, giving investors and Apple fans an idea of where the secretive company could be headed next.
The figures published for English applications run back to 2006, when applications were 113, 000 - higher than at present.
This allows for consumer specific applications where combining published content with related user data on a convenient, single volume is desirable.
The team describes its breakthrough results and their applications in a paper published today in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express.
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The final draft of the design brief, which will be used by the authority when considering planning applications, will be published in the spring.
Moreover, any such search would be incomplete, because it cannot reveal applications that are not yet published (18 months from filing in most cases), let alone those that have not yet been filed.
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"I can confirm that INPI published today its decisions about eight trademark applications related to iPhone, from Apple: four applications were rejected and other four were approved, " said the agency's spokesman Marcelo Chimento.
The official update on applications up to Tuesday's deadline will be published at the end of January.
Figures from the university admissions service, Ucas, published last month, showed a 22.9% increase in applications on last year.
Canonical has published a Preview SDK and App Design Guides to allow developers to create applications for the full range of Ubuntu platforms.
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Figures published earlier this month showed a different story, however, for year-on-year applications - which fell for the first time in five years last year.
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