Samsung has now filed a trademark with the European Trademark and Design Network (ETDN) which could be directly linked to a material the company has been rumored to be working on since back in 2015. Namely, the newly filed trademark for “Metal 12” points to a materials trademark under Nice Classification 6, covering metals and their alloys. That applies to magnesium and its alloys, according to the listing. Although there’s no guarantee this is the same metal the company has been working on, that would seem to suggest that Samsung has finally made enough progress with its long-rumored magnesium and aluminum alloy to trademark a name for it. Better still, the secondary classification – which shows the trademarked name’s use in relation to the overall market – is listed as Nice Classification 9. That specifically applies to a range of electronics encompassing smartwatches, smartphones, tablets, displays, computers, laptops, wearables, and more. So, while the news is worth taking with a grain of salt, there may be more to the speculation around Samsung’s new metal than just rumor.
The rumors up to this point have mostly speculated that a new metal would be introduced with exceptional durability, while still being comparatively lightweight, and that the metal would first hit the market in various smartphones – with a new smartphone being pointed to for each successive year. Most recently, a Samsung product marketed as the Notebook 9 (2018) is said to have released already encased in Metal 12. The Windows-based laptop’s design and description do seem to fit the bill. Moreover, it is now rumored that the as-yet-unrevealed Samsung Galaxy S9 series of devices could use Metal 12 in their design. Those are expected to be revealed either at MWC 2018 or at their own event before or after that event.
Unfortunately, as is almost always the case with rumors, neither claim has yet been substantiated. If Samsung were already making devices using the new material, it would likely already be marketing that fact since a trademark filing generally points to a term to be used that way. Meanwhile, Samsung has not explicitly used the term Metal 12 in that way yet. With that said, there is still plenty of time left in the year for Samsung to start using the term it now has trademarked. Furthermore, since the trademark can apply to a huge variety of products, there’s a good chance it will. All that remains to be seen is whether it first sees use in a television, smartphone, smartwatch, tablet, wearable, or something else.