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Apple Renews Rights to Liquidmetal Technologies' Alloys for Consumer Products

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Apr 12, 2001
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liquidmetal.png
Apple has renewed exclusive rights to use Liquidmetal Technologies' metal alloys in consumer electronics items, according to a filing with the SEC.

The rights were originally purchased back in 2010, to run through February 2014. The new renewal extends the agreement through February of 2015.
On May 19, 2014, Liquidmetal Technologies, Inc. (the "Company") and Apple Inc. ("Apple") entered into an second amendment (the "Second Amendment") to the Master Transaction Agreement that was originally entered into on August 5, 2010 (the "MTA") and amended on June 15, 2012 (the "First Amendment"). Under the MTA and the First Amendment, the Company was obligated to contribute to Crucible Intellectual Property, LLC, a special purpose subsidiary of the Company, all intellectual property acquired or developed by the Company from August 5, 2010 through February 5, 2014, and all intellectual property held by Crucible Intellectual Property, LLC was exclusively licensed on a perpetual basis to Apple for the field of use of consumer electronic products under the MTA. Under the Second Amendment, the parties agreed to amend the MTA and the First Amendment to extend the February 5, 2014 date to February 5, 2015.
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According to a report from earlier this year, Apple is interested in using Liquidmetal's alloys for home buttons, touch sensors and tamper-resistant screws. The alloys possess a number of unique properties including high strength and corrosion resistance while remaining relatively light and able to cast into a variety of forms.

Article Link: Apple Renews Rights to Liquidmetal Technologies' Alloys for Consumer Products
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/05/21/liquidmetal-renewal/
diddl14

diddl14

macrumors 65816
Aug 10, 2009
1,102
1,730
Pity that Swatch has the exclusive rights on jewelry and .. watches.
 
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ryanasimov

macrumors 6502
Apr 1, 2007
311
291
Is anyone using Liquidmetal in any mass-produced products currently? I've heard about this stuff for years but with the exception of the back cover of my old Sansa mp3 player and a SIM ejector tool from Apple I haven't seen it used anywhere.
 
G

goonie4life9

macrumors 6502a
Jun 16, 2010
691
1,459
dumastudetto

dumastudetto

macrumors 603
Aug 28, 2013
5,017
7,139
Los Angeles, USA
This is great news for consumers. I'm excited to see Apple take these rights forward into some incredible new revolutionary products. And the best bit Apple's exclusive rights to the technology means samesung et all can't copy this time. :D
 
TallManNY

TallManNY

macrumors 601
Nov 5, 2007
4,741
1,594
Ah

Ah, Liquid Metal. The most disappointing Apple rumor of all. We've not gotten much out of this wonderful substance yet. But maybe next year!
 
HobeSoundDarryl

HobeSoundDarryl

macrumors G5
Feb 8, 2004
12,241
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Hobe Sound, FL (20 miles north of Palm Beach)
Maybe the is about NOT letting some key competitor have access to it rather than being the basis for some Apple product? Happens all the time: buy to suppress rather than buy to impress.

While just speculation, I'd think if something was impending that really showcased the use of LM, Apple would "renew" for longer than 1 year. If that something is a big hit, they'd want to keep the lock on for longer than 1 year rather than potentially being hit up to pay more to renew again.

I'm suspicious of the short-term.
 
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rweston002

macrumors newbie
Mar 17, 2014
6
6
USA
HobeSoundDarryl said:
Maybe the is about NOT letting some key competitor have access to it rather than being the basis for some Apple product? Happens all the time: buy to suppress rather than buy to impress.

While just speculation, I'd think if something was impending that really showcased the use of LM, Apple would "renew" for longer than 1 year. If that something is a big hit, they'd want to keep the lock on for longer than 1 year rather than potentially being hit up to pay more to renew again.

I'm suspicious of the short-term.
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Yeah, maybe - or maybe they're waiting for things to be sorted out with Visser before they buy them out like they did with AuthenTec?

Us being on the outside and have such little detail, who knows...
 
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rmatthewware

macrumors 6502
Jul 22, 2009
493
125
HobeSoundDarryl said:
Maybe the is about NOT letting some key competitor have access to it rather than being the basis for some Apple product? Happens all the time: buy to suppress rather than buy to impress.

While just speculation, I'd think if something was impending that really showcased the use of LM, Apple would "renew" for longer than 1 year. If that something is a big hit, they'd want to keep the lock on for longer than 1 year rather than potentially being hit up to pay more to renew again.

I'm suspicious of the short-term.
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Maybe Apple changed their mind on liquid metal, but wants to keep the rights an extra year just to make sure, in case something else doesn't pan out.
 
thermodynamic

thermodynamic

Suspended
May 3, 2009
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Titanium81 said:
Can't wait to see what Apple has in store.
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You can't. Few will. The screws will be made of this special metal, to prevent their being moved by "unauthorized" personnel. Still, when making computers with off-the-shelf commodity hardware, you then have to then make every attempt to do any DIY upgrades impossible so you're forced to pay 5x as much for comparable upgrades directly through the company, even if the same hardware can be had on competing devices for half the price, before any upgrade is considered. Yee-haw.

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HobeSoundDarryl said:
Maybe the is about NOT letting some key competitor have access to it rather than being the basis for some Apple product? Happens all the time: buy to suppress rather than buy to impress.

While just speculation, I'd think if something was impending that really showcased the use of LM, Apple would "renew" for longer than 1 year. If that something is a big hit, they'd want to keep the lock on for longer than 1 year rather than potentially being hit up to pay more to renew again.

I'm suspicious of the short-term.
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True. Competition is no different than toddlers in a sandbox, flinging sand at each other and screaming "MINE!!!!!"

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dumastudetto said:
This is great news for consumers. I'm excited to see Apple take these rights forward into some incredible new revolutionary products. And the best bit Apple's exclusive rights to the technology means samesung et all can't copy this time. :D
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Apart from the times Apple has copied from Samsung, Google (re: Android's features), or other companies? :D If Apple is so whiny about copying, here's an idea: Make everything with proprietary, from-the-ground up designs where none of it came from off-the-shelf components like open source, the ARM technology it licenses for iphones, etc, etc, etc... and no more leaching off of old-sci fi to make its "original" tablets from - Star Trek and others have shown these and other ideas for decades... (Use a search engine; Apple copies just like everyone else...)

Plus, enough of the article stated the metal would be used for shiny pretty buttons, and for screws so you can't see what's inside. Since a patent on a rounded rectangle is not on the inside of the unit, the competition-bashing makes no sense.
 
thekev

thekev

macrumors 604
Aug 5, 2010
7,005
3,343
camnchar said:
Dear Tim Cook,

Please use these rights for something.

Chuck
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They may be using it as intended. They may also have research projects related to this, but there's no way to know where it is and isn't feasible. Some things just don't scale well.

darkslide29 said:
Dang, it's been THAT long already? I remember first reading about it on here.

Years flying by, getting old, still no liquid metal body iPhone..:(
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It may not scale up well or cost effectively. I think people on here just want to see it for the coolness factor. It sounds interesting.
 
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