There’s the possibility that Microsoft’s Courier may be, in fact, not as dead as previously thunk. Microsoft just received a patent for an ‘ornamental design for a dual display device’ – one that, by the looks of it, is the ghost of the Courier.

Remember the Courier? It was a concept tablet creating a buzz back when the iPad was still called ‘possible Apple tablet??’ and the world was content with real portable computers that do real computer stuff.  Though never officially announced, it was officially shelved. It was widely believed that Microsoft had every intention of going toe-to-toe with Apple, and from the looks of it, they really could have had a chance. But alas, it was not to be. Until now, apparently.

“At any given time, across any of our business groups, there are new ideas being investigated, tested, and incubated. It’s in Microsoft’s DNA to continually develop and incubate new technologies to foster productivity and creativity,” said Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s VP of communications, when the project was scrapped. “The ‘Courier’ project is an example of this type of effort and its technologies will be evaluated for use in future Microsoft offerings.”

Looks like those future offerings may be under evaluation as we speak. Even if Microsoft will be a little late to the tablet party, whatever – that strategy’s worked with pretty much every product they’ve ever had. If they can craft a tablet that can do what the Courier might have, they might very well have my money.