AirPower Launch Could Be Imminent (Now That Apple Can Actually Call It AirPower)

After numerous rumours suggested that we might actually see Apple’s fabled AirPower appear by the end of this month, the arrival of Apple’s new wirelessly-charging capable AirPods on Wednesday with no sign of AirPower alongside them left us scratching our heads as to why Apple would would deliberately postpone the release of its charging mat by even a day after debuting of what is almost an entirely complementary accessory.

A new report from MacRumors may shed a bit of light on this however, as apparently the company has only very recently actually secured the right to actually call the new charging mat “AirPower.”

According to the report, Apple has been attempting to secure the “AirPower” trademark since last summer, when it discovered that another company, Advanced Access Technologies, had already filed an earlier application to trademark the term.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), provisionally granted the trademark in December, a process that opens up an “opposition” period during which other companies can challenge the trademark, usually based on claims that it will create confusion with other products. Apple filed an opposition in January 2019, based on its wide range of Air-named products: AirPlay, AirPort, AirPods, and AirPrint.

Apple continued the legal battle over the trademark for several weeks, before appearing to give up and withdraw its opposition, terminating the dispute. However, immediately afterward, it was revealed that an Apple lawyer, Thomas Perle, was appointed to be the attorney of the trademark filing, suggesting that Apple gave up fighting and simply bought the trademark outright from Advanced Access Technologies.

While the trademark is still listed as belonging to Advanced Access Technologies, but the appointment of one of Apple’s trademark attorneys, complete with Apple’s corporate name and address, and a blanket appointment of “All other attorneys in [Apple’s] trademark law department” suggests that the company is now simply going through the legal procedures of getting the trademark reassigned to Apple.

This latest discovery would fully explain why Apple didn’t release AirPower at the ideal time. While we would have expected to see AirPower released alongside Apple’s new AirPods on Wednesday, Apple didn’t yet quite own the trademark at that point, and probably decided it was better to take care of that first than risk the litigation that would result from attempting to use a trademark owned by another company.

It’s also important to note, however, that there’s no indication that Apple wouldn’t have prevailed in its trademark challenge, however these types of disputes can take a long time to work their way through the bureaucracy; Apple voluntarily withdrew its opposition not as an act of surrender, but likely simply because it makes more business sense to simply buy the trademark and get the long-delayed charging mat out the door. At this point, the longer Apple delays AirPower, the less likely they are to be releasing it into a receptive market as more and more users simply move on to other wireless charging solutions.

While it’s still unclear when we’ll actually see AirPower, all rumours still point to “very soon.” In fact, there’s a mounting pile of evidence that suggests Apple has everything in place already — with the now-obvious exception of the actual product name — so we’re betting that it’s now a matter of Apple simply dotting the i’s and pushing the button.

Learn More: Don’t Wait for AirPower! Xvida’s New 3-in-1 Wireless Charger Is the Solution You Need

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]