Apple has won a total of 14 patents since the arrival of 2008, including its iPhone cellular handset which may be one of the fastest granted patents ever recorded for an Apple product. The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has published patents covering Apple's iPod, iPod shuffle, iPod dock, MacBook, MacBook Pro, QuickTime Player, and others.

Apple's newly granted patents depict each device in detail, outlining the company's iPod and dock as well as the iPhone and MacBook line. The company also won a patent describing a method for determining and communicating the existence of a hybrid bus. The method determines whether the node has a connection to a legacy link layer, and then transmits a self-id packet with or without a speed code.