Soon to find its way to your iPhone homescreen, the AppStore logo is the subject of Apple’s latest venture through the US Patent and Trademark Office, highlighting once again the Cupertino company’s strong-handed control of each element that makes up the iPhone ecosystem.  The icon itself resembles OS X Leopard’s Application folder, with the ‘A’ made up of a paintbrush, pencil and ruler, and will be included as part of the iPhone 2.0 Firmware update expected in June.

The trademark is the next step in Apple’s management of third-party software on the iPhone, which for the first time will be possible though closely monitored and controlled by the company itself.  Limitations for developers using the official SDK – such as the inability to use background processes to keep non-Apple applications running in the background – have been well publicised, as has Apple’s 30-percent tithe for paid software (actually relatively competitive compared to other online software retailers such as Handango). 

[via TG Daily]