Resourceful web sleuths recently uncovered both a domain registration and trademark  for “iSlate” under Apple’s name -- but not so quick, there may be more here than meets the eye.

It’s amusing to look back three years ago and compare the Apple tablet rumors to the ones prior to the iPhone being announced at Macworld Expo 2007. But one thing the iPhone rumors accurately pegged was the name of the device -- and until this week, there wasn’t much speculation on what Apple’s fabled tablet would be called.

MacRumors has been digging around since it was uncovered that Apple has registered iSlate.com as well as trademarking the iSlate name, and they’ve now disclosed that Apple has another trademark registration that might fit the bill, courtesy of iGuide Media, LLC.

Like the iSlate trademark registration, iGuide Media, LLC is also a Delaware-based company with the sole purpose of securing a trademark on Apple’s behalf -- in this case, for “iGuide.” An application for the trademark was first filed in December, 2007 and they bear Apple’s Senior Trademark Specialist Regina Porter’s signature, so the two companies appear linked in some way.

Also making this one of those things that make you go “Hmmm…”: The lawyer handling the paperwork for the iGuide trademark also filed the same for the iPhone trademark under Ocean Telecom Services (again on behalf of Apple). MacRumors concludes that iGuide Media, LLC has been created strictly for the purpose of securing a trademark on iGuide.

The trademark classification for iGuide is the most telling clue, painting a picture of an all-purpose media browser: “Computer hardware and computer software for accessing, browsing, searching, recording, organizing, storing, transmitting, receiving, manipulating, streaming, reproducing, playing, and reviewing audio, video, games, music, television, movies, photographs, and other multimedia content.”

And if that’s not enough evidence, a later passage details such content: “Downloadable electronic publications in the nature of books, magazines, newsletters, journals, and blogs in the fields of entertainment, sports, science, history, culture, celebrities, news, current events, politics, technology, and education…”

Assuming that the special event that Apple is hosting on January 26th is indeed to throw back the curtain on the long-rumored tablet, we may all know in less than a month what these names mean for the company...