Apple Has Filed A Trademark For Slofie

Slofie might sound like a joke Apple made during its announcing event for the iPhone 11, but the company seems to take its made-up word seriously. Last week, the iPhone maker applied for a trademark for the word, meaning it wants to take control of how the word is used.

Slofie refers to slo-mo selfies, a new feature introduced to iPhone 11 recently. The front camera of the phone can record a video at 120 frames per second, which means if we slow it down, we will have a crisp slo-mo effect. While this is a neat trick, Apple may not have the same Animoji phenomenon happening again.

The way Apple applies for a trademark appears to be a preventing measure to stop other companies from creating a camera app with the slofie brand. The reason here is quite obvious; the company wants its iPhones to be the only devices that can legally use this feature.

Apple did not give Slofie a separate mode or app on the iPhone 11 lineup; instead, the feature is called ‘slo-mo,’ and the company is using this term for the results users have, not the app or the mode used to create the effect.

It appears that Apple hopes Slofie will become a selling point for its newly-released iPhones. The company mentions the effect on its websites and also gave a demo during the announcing event.

Another company had trademarked a similar term in 2011 in Hong Kong. What they used back then was SlowFi, something relating to wireless communications. However, these are two different words, and the trademark for SlowFi, as well as the company that applied for it, is now defunct.

If you are wondering, the trademark costs Apple $400.