Posts Tagged: "patent"

I will be attending meetings in Morristown, NJ, on Tuesday, October 21, 2014. One of my sponsors, Innography, will be sponsoring the free happy hour event… John White and I will be in San Francisco teaching the PLI patent bar review course at the end of October 2014. This will be our last live course of the year, with our next live course being in the DC/VA area the first full week of 2015. Of course, home study courses are always available.

October 18 marks the 25th anniversary of the 1989 launching of the Galileo spacecraft by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a mission which focused on the study of the planet Jupiter and its moons. For decades, the operations of NASA have been incredibly innovative and inspirational to inventors of all kinds. The agency is still involved in various programs for scientific research, especially involving Mars… Although a patent has not yet been issued, metamaterials, or artificial materials engineered to have properties that aren’t found in nature, are the focus of U.S. Patent Application No. 20140287904, which is titled Negative Dielectric Constant Material Based on Ion Conducting Materials. The metamaterials involved in the invention are specifically negative index materials which have the unique ability to achieve a negative refractive index, enabling the creation of superlenses with greatly increased optical resolutions. The invention has multiple applications in both the commercial aerospace and military industries, such as cloaking or high-frequency communication systems.

Immediately prior to becoming Director of the un-opened Silicon Valley Patent Office, from 2003 to 2012, Lee was the Deputy General Counsel and Head of Patents and Patent Strategy at Google Inc. Google has been a outspoken critic of the U.S. patent system and based on their public positions and lobbying it is clear that the company would like to see software patents abolished and the patent system significantly curtailed. Recently other large Silicon Valley companies have split with Google and have started to work to promote the importance of patents as a tool for American innovation.

We were very intrigued to see a large number of patent applications related to goal achievement technologies, and we closely examined three of these which we felt were worth sharing. Methods for creating an impetus to achieve a goal, whether for money or for social benefit, would be protected by U.S. Patent Application No. 20140272849, entitled System and Method Providing Positive Social and Economic Motivators for Goal Achievement. The filing discloses a method of defining a list of goals through a computing device, each goal comprised of a progression plan with a set of milestones, and assigning goals to a group of users. For progressing towards goals and hitting milestones, users may be rewarded with a monetary award from an advertiser, or may win a social bet with terms set among friends.

A practicing entity may want to obtain one or more patents is for potential counter assertion against a competitor that is about to or has already sued the entity. In such a case, the scope of the search and the required due diligence may be very particularized to the competitor’s business, and are likely to require a higher level of analysis which is more particularized to a specific group of products or services. Similarly, an organization may desire to acquire, early-on, patents and applications that may be asserted down the road to avoid future litigation. This type of program seeks to acquire for a smaller value today, what may be asserted against the entity for a larger demand in the future. The diligence in such a circumstance should be focused on the risk of sale to an entity that is likely to assert the patent in the future.

We found a couple of patent applications involving technologies which present topics of interest to computing device users, including methods for activity planning to see a concert or an event. Another patent application describes a method of providing insight from local experts about an unknown destination. We were also intrigued by a method of presenting digital advertisements to individuals which is designed to encourage retail sales at brick and mortar stores. Google has a very strong patent portfolio and we share a few of its more intriguing recently patented technologies below. A couple of patents regard improvements to digital keyboards used by touch devices, including a keyboard interface that adjusts to minimize typing errors. A couple of other patents relate to improvements to user interfaces, and we explore one patent aimed at reducing latency when loading applications with multiple windows. A couple of other patents relate to improved methods of providing news content to individuals.

The patent portfolio held by Samsung represents one of the largest holdings of intellectual properties in the world, and recent weeks brought another constant stream of U.S. patent grants assigned by the USPTO. Mobile technologies were again a common thread among the technologies recently patented by Samsung Electronics and other subsidiaries. One patent protects a system of providing anti-virus protections to smartphone devices through a remote server. Another patent we explored discusses methods of improving data transmissions between devices through near field communication networks. We also noticed an intriguing technology involving a wearable glasses apparatus that accommodates better selection among multiple field of views.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxconn Technology Group, is headquartered in New Taipei, Taiwan. This electronics contract manufacturing company creates parts for many of the world’s most popular electronic products which are often sold under other brand names. manufactures the electronic components for a stunning array of devices, consoles and other electronics products. Foxconn is the most innovative corporation headquartered in Taiwan and one of the most inventive in the world. Improvements to cleaning robots and smart television sets are discussed in a couple of patents we explore. A couple of patent applications also discuss hardware improvements to notebook computer screens that allow them to rotate or be positioned in other ways.

The new service will allow the USPTO and the SIPO, with appropriate permissions, to obtain electronic copies of priority documents filed with the other office from its electronic records management system at no cost to the applicant. With this new service, applicants will no longer need to obtain and file paper copies of the priority documents; however, they are still responsible for ensuring that priority documents are provided in a timely manner.

The Supreme Court is simply not knowledgeable about patent law. And that’s not to say that the Justices couldn’t become knowledgeable, but even in this active state they’re only handling six or eight patent cases a year at most and so a lot of those deal with contracts and that sort of thing. So they’re not ever going to do enough patent cases to develop a specialty. They’re allergic to bright line rules despite the fact that in our space we have 10,000 front line decisions makers between the patent examiners, the Board, the district courts, and the Federal Circuit. You can’t have that many decisions makers without bright line rules, which should be self-evident to anybody including those that went to Ivy League schools and wear black robes. But apparently it’s not.

We share a trio of patent applications discussing improvements to memory devices, especially flash memory devices. A number of intriguing technologies which we share below are also related to brick and mortar retail environments, including one patent application discussing a method of providing entertainment content to retail workers to keep them more productive. Toshiba holds a very robust patent portfolio, and we also explored some patents which have been issued to the company within the past few weeks. Two patents related to three-dimensional memory cell stacks for better semiconductor memory devices are explored. Two other patents we share protect water treatment technologies, including one for capturing more copper precipitate from wastewater while creating less sludge. We also discuss a couple of patents focused on printing technologies, including an apparatus and system for recycling printed sheets by removing images.

Today’s column focuses solely on the inventions recently added to IBM’s patent portfolio; everything you see below represents a technology for which IBM has been issued a U.S. patent grant during September 2014. Telecommunications innovations are included among this, specifically systems for e-mail organization and telephone call filtering. We share a trio of patents protecting computer languages and networking technologies. Social networking analysis technologies and a couple of inventions related to accessibility programs for computer users with impairments are also featured. Television viewers may be intrigued as well to learn about the novel technique for blocking unwanted commercial content protected by another IBM patent that we explored today.