Ear Phone

Filed October 15th, 2001

They’re just an accessory, no different in functionality from comparable items manufactured by an array of other companies. They’ve been known to hurt your ears or tip muggers off that you’re carrying an expensive gadget that they can steal. But the iPod earbuds are as instantly identifiable as Apple gear as any product the company has ever made, even in this patent drawing. Apple filed the patent on them eight days before the iPod was announced.