Apple files trademark for A18 chip found in its latest smartphones

When Apple launched its latest iPhone line in September 2024, it featured the company’s “custom-built” A18 chips.

It’s been reported that the company has recently filed for a figurative trademark for the A18 chip, which powers the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus.

A figurative trademark is a type of trademark that protects non-standard characters, graphic elements, or, simply put, logos.

In the issued document, the company states that “the mark consists of a design of an apple with a bite removed and the words A18.”

The A18 and A18 Pro chips were first introduced with the release of the iPhone 16 smartphones.

The A18 chip has a six-core CPU, which has been reported to be 30% faster and more energy-efficient than the A16 chip, found in iPhone 15 smartphones.

It also has a five-core GPU, which performs 40% better than the A16 chip.

Apple has also jumped on board the AI trend train by adding a 16-core Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which accelerates AI and machine learning tasks.

However, despite the company’s focus on providing users with its home-built AI, the feature came in only after the release of the iPhone 16 series.

The company also promised “graphics-intensive gaming [and] power computational photography features” with the A18 chip.

The A18 chip series also includes the A18 Pro chip, which differs from the A18 chip in that it has one added GPU core.

“The new A18 chip delivers a huge leap in performance and efficiency, enabling demanding AAA games, as well as a big boost in battery life,” stated Apple.

When it comes to the new smartphone battery life, a 16 Pro Max battery life teardown revealed significant differences in batteries of different iPhone 16 smartphone models.