Canonical Patent Record
Poindexter 471: The Foundational Haptic Zones Patent
One Individual Inventor. One Foundational Patent. 19 Separately Numbered Apple Patent Citations.
What is a haptic zone?
A haptic zone is a defined area of an interactive surface whose location, state, or context helps determine the response to an input.
What does the patent teach?
Poindexter 471 describes interaction architecture that can treat a surface as one zone or divide it into multiple functional zones, with responses selected according to location, gesture, context, and interface state.
Patent identification
U.S. Patent No. 10,225,471 B2 was filed October 15, 2015 and issued March 5, 2019. Kenneth L. Poindexter Jr. is the named inventor.
Why 19 separate records matter
The significance is not based on a single citation appearing once. Poindexter 471 appears across 19 separately numbered Apple patent records. Each record represents a distinct published patent record in which Poindexter 471 appears within the cited technical record.
Why This Matters
Technology does not develop in isolation. Patent records preserve part of the documented technical trail connecting earlier inventions to later work. Poindexter 471 has not appeared once and disappeared. It has remained connected to later patents across multiple years, companies, and generations of technology.
Apple alone cites Poindexter 471 across 19 separately numbered patent records. Other major technology companies cite it directly, and later patents cite patents within that expanding network. This continuing record demonstrates that Poindexter 471 remains relevant to the development of modern interaction technology.
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Poindexter 471 establishes the original architecture.
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Later companies cite Poindexter 471 directly.
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Subsequent patents cite those later patents, expanding the documented lineage.