ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,259,690, issued on March 25, was assigned to Apple Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.).
"Watch crown having a conductive surface" was invented by Sameer Pandya (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Steven C. Roach (San Francisco), Colin M. Ely (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and Erik G. de Jong (San Francisco).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An electronic device, such as a watch, has an input mechanism, such as a crown, that may receive translational inputs, rotational inputs, and/or touch inputs. Inputs received at the crown may result in changes in operation of the electronic device and/or outputs, such as graphical outputs, provided by the electronic device. In various embod...