If there's one thing for certain in all the hoopla about the impending Apple event on January 27th, it's, to quote Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman, nobody knows nothing. Rumor, speculation, innuendo, gleanings from patent applications, all of this rounds up to a big fat zero until the magic day.

But here's one more rumor to keep your thirst almost-slaked.

According to some sleuthing by The Jesus Tablet blog and given wider airing on Gawker, Apple filed requests with the US Patent and Trademark Office last September as well as December. The thrust of their argument seems to be that Apple opposes the trademark held by Fujitsu for the term "iPad" which is the name of that company's handheld retail-related device.

This goes neatly hand in hand with Apple's filing in July for trademark protection for the term "iPad" as well as their filing for the term "iSlate" and "Magic Slate." Some of this could just be covering bases, some of it could be a smokescreen designed to keep us thrown off the real scent. With such a secretive company as Apple, it's a sure bet that there's a misinformation budget thrown into their general marketing campaigns.

The curious thing, as noted in the above Gawker article, while Apple has filed numerous times in regards to the name "iPad," they haven't as yet actually lodged any formal complaints as to the nature of their opposition. They have merely asked for more time. And the judge granted them an extension until February 28th, long after whatever will be unveiled next week will be unveiled. So keep on waiting. That's what we're doing.