Having asserted its ownership of revolutionary ideas such as rectangles with round corners and unlocking touch sensitive devices by touching the screen, Apple now has ownership of electronic page turning.

Apple’s latest patent was issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office, and covers the idea of an electronic page turn. US patent D670,713 essentially shows a drawing of a paper notebook with one page corner turned up a little, followed by two further drawings where the page is turned over more. Here we've put the three drawing together to show the page turn mechanism:

This is clearly an idea that only the genius designers at Apple could have thought of, so there’s no surprise that Apple has applied for the patent or that the US patent office has granted it.

If you’re sitting banging your head on your desk because you didn’t think of patenting this idea, it’s worth noting that there are other virtual page turning patents already in operation. Adobe and Microsoft have patents on page turn ideas, and even Apple has an earlier patent. What’s different about this one, apparently, is the angle the page is turned at. See, it all makes perfect sense now.