ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,422,977, issued on Sept. 23, was assigned to Apple Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.).
"User interfaces with a character having a visual state based on device activity state and an indication of time" was invented by Kevin Will Chen (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Guillaume Pierre Andre Barlier (San Mateo, Calif.), Lisa K. Forssell (Palo Alto, Calif.), JD Gardner (San Jose, Calif.), Aurelio Guzman (San Jose, Calif.), Jason Rickwald (Santa Cruz, Calif.), Christopher James Romney (San Jose, Calif.), Nicolas Scapel (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Christopher Wilson (San Francisco), Alan C. Dye (San Francisco) and Kevin M. Lynch (Woodside, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Off...