US Patent Issued to Apple on July 7 for "Membrane sealed keyboard" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 7 -- United States Patent no. 12,676,268, issued on July 7, was assigned to Apple Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.).

"Membrane sealed keyboard" was invented by Paul X. Wang (Cupertino, Calif.), Abidur R. Chowdhury (San Francisco), Bart K. Andre (Palo Alto, Calif.), Dinesh C. Mathew (San Francisco) and Keith J. Hendren (San Francisco).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Keyboards and other input devices are provided with at least one flexible layer that extends over or under the keycaps. The flexible layer spans interkey spaces and lies between inner and outer keycaps. The flexible layer prevents intrusion of invasive material to the keyboard mechanisms and simplifies the appearance of ...