Someone has trademarked "realityOS," which is rumored to be the name of the operating system used by Apple's upcoming augmented reality headset, and it's not hard to guess who.
The trademark was initially spotted and shared by The Verge's Parker Ortolani on Twitter:
The trademark was apparently filed in December 2021, which is just a few months before references to realityOS appeared in App Store upload logs and Apple-managed GitHub repos.
It also establishes a foreign filing deadline of June 8, 2022. Apple is set to host the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)—which is where it typically reveals operating system updates, new development tools, and the like—from June 6-10.
Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Apple recently demonstrated an augmented reality headset to its board of directors. It would make sense for the company to show off its next major platform to its board of directors before publicly revealing it at WWDC.
It's worth noting that someone else might have filed this trademark to take advantage of the Apple rumor mill or, perhaps, convince the company to pay for the rights to use the branding. And even if Apple did trademark realityOS, there's no guarantee the platform will ever debut.
Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.