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Apple has applied to create a patent for a system allowing authors to sign e-books.
This week, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from the technology company that outlines a system for embedding autographs into e-books when approved by authors.
The system would work via a hotspot, created at a signing event, allowing the signing to be activated when readers bought their e-books to the event. Authors, or other parties authorised by the authors, such as publishers, would be able to create autograph pages that readers could transfer onto their e-books.
Authors could also authorise readers to create the pages at the events, allowing them to be personalised.
At events, reader's devices would be activated depending on where they were. For example, they could be waiting in a signing queue, which would activate their device to create the page, while the full details could be added when they reach the front of the queue. Authors could sign digitally on their own devices, with the image transferred, or could write on paper, with a picture taken of the text and sent to the reader. Pictures and video clips could also be added.
The patent also allows for remote signings, where authors could sign reader e-books in online chat rooms or other virtual events.
It is not the first time that a company has tried to establish a way of signing e-books. US company Autography also has a patent pending on its own method of allowing authors to autograph digital texts.