New Apple Patents
Apple patents everything from iPhone and Mac features to Vision Pro optics, health sensors, and Apple Silicon, often years before products ship.
Through the USPTO’s September 24, 2026 release, Patentlyze has covered 493 notable Apple patent applications, including 155 published in the last 30 days.
This week's published patents
Apple's 32 newest filings sort into three clusters:
- Headset and eye tracking. Over a dozen filings target AR/VR and gaze interaction, including eye-tracking that scrolls text when you finish reading, AR labels that stay stuck to real objects, and a strap-mounted processor design.
- Wireless and radio efficiency. Several filings focus on cutting battery drain, including a low-power radio that wakes the main chip only when needed, faster satellite switching, and tower handoffs that spare the battery.
- Cameras, audio, and display. Remaining filings cover a camera that auto-sorts photos into shared or private albums, a prism-tilting system for thinner optical zoom, and headphones that mix a wired cable with wireless head tracking.
What Apple is working on
Long-running programs
what qualifies: 8 or more filings, active in the last 6 weeks
| Apple's AR glasses | 69 filings · latest Sep 24 |
| Apple's eye and hand controls | 34 filings · latest Sep 24 |
| Apple's device-to-device handoff | 25 filings · latest Sep 24 |
| Apple's foldable iPhone | 9 filings · latest Sep 18 |
Newly emerging
what qualifies: first Apple filing within the last 8 weeks
| The AI photo editing race | 2 filings since Sep 4 |
| The AI chip wars | 7 filings since Aug 6 |
Gone quiet
what qualifies: no new Apple filing in 6 or more weeks while the race stays active
| Wearables that read your body | 12 filings · quiet since Jun 26 while 6 rivals kept filing |
Contested races
what qualifies: 3 or more companies in the same watchlist, Apple among them
| The AR glasses race | 44 of 312 · 10 companies |
| The AI chip wars | 7 of 309 · 12 companies |
| The AI photo editing race | 2 of 194 · 14 companies |
| AI agents that act for you | 4 of 151 · 15 companies |
| The on-device AI privacy push | 14 of 141 · 11 companies |
| The GPU rendering race | 3 of 109 · 10 companies |
Apple patent questions, answered
What is Apple working on right now?
Apple's current patent filings concentrate on Apple's AR glasses, Apple's eye and hand controls, Apple's device-to-device handoff and Apple's foldable iPhone, with newer activity in The AI photo editing race and The AI chip wars. The breakdown above shows each program’s filing count and latest activity.
How many patents did Apple publish this month?
133 Apple patent applications have published in September 2026 so far, after 84 in August. Patentlyze has covered 492 Apple filings since tracking began in May 2026.
Does an Apple patent mean the feature will launch?
No. A published application is not a product announcement. Companies file to protect options, and most patented ideas never ship in the form described. What filings do show is where Apple is spending research effort right now.
Where can I find Apple’s newest patents?
This page updates every week, when the USPTO publishes its new batch of applications. The newest Apple filings appear in the list below.
Top tech areas
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Hardware 143
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AR/VR 137
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Software 115
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Networking 67
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Cell phone 49
Top inventors
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Dawei Zhang 21
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Stephen O. Lemay 21
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William A. Sorrentino III 17
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Wei Zeng 14
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Alan C. Dye 13
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Recent highlights
All Apple filings
