For the past several months, rumors have been circulating about Apple’s plans to refresh the MacBook Pro line, specifically via the addition of a touch-based OLED bar of function keys. Now, the company has confirmed that it will hold an event on October 27 — and we may have learned the name of that new keyboard component.
The theory is that the OLED strip of dynamic function keys will follow the same naming convention as Apple products like the Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Keyboard. In February 2016, an application was submitted trademarking the “Magic Toolbar,” according to a report from trademark expert Brian Conroy.
However, it wasn’t Apple that submitted the application, it was a Delaware-based company operating under the name Presto Apps America LLC. Since then, this entity has applied for global trademark protection of the term.
Conroy argues that Presto Apps America must be a cover for Apple, because the costs associated with these applications exceed 16,000 euros (about $17,500). Given that Apple has already trademarked the likes of the Magic Mouse and the Magic Keyboard, it would be relatively simple for the company to object to someone else trademarking the Magic Toolbar.
Either Presto Apps America is taking a major gamble, or the organization is working on behalf of Apple. Separate trademark applications that were submitted for Canadian, Malaysian, and Indonesian approval seems to point to the latter scenario.
Conroy reports that the three different law offices that applied for trademarks in these regions match the entities that trademarked the term Airpods last year. This certainly adds credence to the idea that Apple is behind efforts to trademark the Magic Toolbar.
At this point, this is all conjecture, but we’re likely to know whether it’s accurate soon enough. Apple is all-but-confirmed to unveil its new MacBook Pro hardware next week, so we’ll see how many times the phrase “Magic Toolbar” crops up over the course of the event.
