Those dreams of massive cities full of beautiful Apple store-style glass cube buildings? They’ve been officially been smashed. Apple has won a patent on its glass cube building design, effectively guaranteeing that the only see-through cube buildings you’ll see in US cities, at least the ones that look like Apple stores, will be property of Apple. Discovered by Apple Insider, the patent document reveals that the design patent, filed in October 2012, was officially granted on Aug. 26 of this year. It lists late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs as one of the design’s inventors.
The patent was officially granted this week, and represents the latest design of the 32-foot cube, which uses fewer panes of glass to achieve a cleaner aesthetic. The simpler look came as a result of a redesign that was completed in late 2011. Previously, the cube used 90 panes of glass, but Apple sunk an estimated $6.7 million into the 15-pane redesign at its flagship New York City store. The cube was personally designed by Jobs and is one of the most photographed landmarks in the city. The former CEO even paid for the project himself, and was the owner of the structure. Jobs is actually credited as one of seven inventors of the structure, and is joined by former retail chief Ron Johnson. The other inventors are Karl Backus, Peter Bohlin, Robert Bridger, Benjamin L. Fay, and James O’Callaghan. The term of the newly awarded building patent is 14 years. Apple originally filed for the patent in October of 2012.
