The magic continues at Apple in the run up to next Thursday’s Mac event. For several months, one of the suggested features of the new MacBook Pro has been an OLED touch panel at the top of the keyboard that’s reconfigurable based on the app that’s currently being used. According to trademark agent Brian “The Trademark Ninja” Conroy, that touch panel is likely to have the name “Magic Toolbar”.
Now there’s a lovely little twisty path that leads to this conclusion. Conroy found a trademark filing for “Magic Toolbar” that was granted in several European countries by what appears to be a dummy company named “Presto Apps America LLC” that was incorporated two weeks before the filing.
Apple, of course, has a lot of “Magic” trademarks — Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and so on. Earlier this week, Apple World Today highlighted how Apple will apply for trademarks in other countries six months prior to needing those trademarks in the US. The first day that Apple can claim the Magic Toolbar trademark in the US? October 26, 2016 — the day before Apple’s Mac event.
Of course, we’ve also heard two other possible names for the panel — the “Control Strip” and “Touch Bar”, but Apple’s obsession with “Magic” seems to lean toward Magic Toolbar being the official name.
The final stamp of authenticity for the trademark actually being for Apple is that the lawyers who made the filing are the same ones who made the filing for the AirPods trademark. Let’s get ready for a little magic on October 27!
