This is interesting, but I hardly think it is unique. I would expect Microsoft to have done lots of work with their mice and keyboards. I expect IBM likely did simliar work when coming up with the ThinkPad (a 15 year old form-factor, which is still the best laptop form factor money can buy). Even car manufacturers have very similar types of research.
It's cool to see the patent, but from what I know of various people who work in usability, this sort of thing is not at all unusual.
lenovo has a site where (mostly) david hill posts about the design of their products, including the thinkpad. hill worked on the thinkpad while at ibm and continues to at lenovo.
It's cool to see the patent, but from what I know of various people who work in usability, this sort of thing is not at all unusual.