After covering Motorola’s multi-layer LCD solar display, Ericsson’s recently issued patent adds a feature in yet another direction: a multiple layered display. Ericsson has thought up a number of applications to fit more onto that tiny screen by layering the information. Apple may be the company to do something like this justice, and after the jump you’ll see just how much work… → Read More
, Verizon revealed a means for using not only time for call routing it currently offers, but also a name recognition routing system. Knowing your Mom wants to be sure you are safe, this is just the technology to be sure she reaches you. → Read More
Nokia recently received a patent covering a new phone interface by using a frame that can be rotated and a series of input controls around a display that changes what the buttons control based on triggering the frame’s rotation spring (e.g. from letters to numbers) Nokia appears to have developed this interface using a display and changeable letter or number options to provide users a more… → Read More
. The court unanimously ruled that the federal appeals court that handles patent cases had given too much power to developers of trivial technological improvements. “Granting patent protection to advances that would occur in the ordinary course without real innovation retards progress,’’ Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court. → Read More
uncovered a Sony application on using your body to transit a signal. Well, Sony has even more out of the box thinking for body transmitting wireless headphones by even more signals rocking through your body. → Read More
At the Ocean Tomo live auction last week, US Patent 6618593 sold for $2.6 million to an anonymous buyer making it a record for the purchase of a patent in a live auction. Billed as a patent to bridge the online into the real world, the patent’s main claim covers the use of mobile location information in conjunction with online information. This is a broad application which provide a… → Read More
Cell phone battery life has been one of the top problems since its inception. Motorola was there at the beginning, and is at least exploring smart solutions. Motorola recently received a patent for combining an LCD screen and a solar cell on a wireless device. While the cost of such a concept makes the iPhone seem like a bargain, the concept of having a display that also can have a dual purpose of… → Read More
Barry Bonds will tell you: if you don’t take swings, you don’t hit home runs. In innovation, the same thing is rings true — you have to keep swinging until you hit a home run. In honor of Fitness Week, we’ll take a look at some of the leading fitness players, like Nike and Adidas, in terms of patented technology, and take a look into just how many swings they’re… → Read More
. While there are many other players with location based technologies in this field, the fact that a carrier like Cingular has some innovations and is looking to add value to its new Apple relationship holds a bit of promise. With the growing geography + mobile, IM, blogging field developing with Twitter and Outside.in, these technologies are also feeling quite timely for launch. → Read More
Olympus has consistently launched pretty hot concepts and has kept their innovation track strong with 76 patents so far in 2007. Would getting into digital display eye wear be that much of a stretch from their experience in digital cameras? Well, they have been thinking about it. Actually, Olympus hasn’t been the only ones dabbling in this nascent area. → Read More
In watching the growing interest in web tracking, with players like clickdensity combined with analytics to fine tune preferences, we thought Canon’s recently received patent covering the use of image data to track eye movement on a computer screen quite interesting. Canon has a deep history in eye tracking technology and filed on this technique to determine head position and then gaze… → Read More
This week, start up SquareLoop won 1st prize at CTIA for its geocasting technology beating out Lucent-Alcatel’s GMS. The company started out in 2005 when it received the rights to patented technologies from tech transfer organization, MITRE, that allow a message to be broadcast via an existing cell networks to users in a geographic area while also ensuring end-user privacy. → Read More
This week, Ericsson received a wireless printer-pen patent that can transfer hand writing to electronic text to send emails and receives content and can print it to special paper taking into account the position of the pen on the paper. With all this typing, is there still room for writing instrument innovation? After a few seconds of thinking, our answer is yes. → Read More
Can’t get to your cell phone when playing College Hoops 2K7? This new feature would allow you to use your game controller, PS3 and flat panel TV to see who’s calling and answer it. Sony Ericsson recently received a patent covering the process of wirelessly transferring content or cell phone calls to and controlling them using a remote control or PS3 controller. → Read More
This week, Pentax received a patent on a 3-D imaging system with distance controls while two individual inventors patented a means for viewing 3-D digital images on the Internet. The art of Stereoscopy has been around for a century, but what’s captivating is where this space can go with the explosion in the digital realm. → Read More
Skullcandy has been creating some interesting products such as their headphones, MP3 watches and backpacks. They were just issued their first patent on a personal portable integrator for a music player and mobile phone (US Patent 7,187,948). It’s a smart device that links your cellphone and music player with the ability to override music when you have a call – aptly named “The… → Read More
Bubbly, nationally advertised Vonage may lose the right to offer VOIP services at the hand of Verizon. On Friday, Verizon won its patent infringement case against upstart Vonage by being awarded a 5.5% royalty for use of patented technologies with $58 million in past damages due. Specifically, Verizon holds a series of patents, including US 6430275 covering a means for tracking customer accounts… → Read More
across devices and were curious about how much effort they have put into DRM. In early 2001, Apple made a dynamic move signing major labels to deliver legitimate music downloads, albeit with a good amount of restrictions FairPlay. Fair enough, a number of folks at the time thought that DRM was a good way to get the digital party legally started. While iPods sold and Microsoft worked on… → Read More
Highlighted yesterday in the Washington Post, as well as covered more extensively by IP blogger Dennis Crouch at Patently-O, is the forthcoming new prototype of an open patent review process for patent applications. To build a sustainable solution for the growing web/tech community’s patent concerns, Beth Noveck and the NY Law School’s Do-Tank created the Peer-to-Patent Project as an… → Read More
Let’s face it, RFID has had a lot of hype in the past four years, but has failed to find its way into our everyday lives and pocketbooks. Case in point: Mobile Phones using RFID. Nokia announced its new JV, Venyon Oy, in hopes of becoming a major player using Near Field Communication (NFC) to build a cell phone ‘swipe-to-pay’ feature. While Apple receives praise for connecting… → Read More
In this week’s IP-Review on digital cameras and displays, we find a slick Konica Rollable LCD screen for digital cameras and found an “immersive theater” concept patented by Kodak. What looks to be taken out of the movie Minority Report, the Konica display technology is described as using “electronic paper, [wherein] the liquid crystal layers of red, green and blue are… → Read More
Thanks to some newly minted cell phone patents, Nokia is getting the attention as a top player in locking up their technologies in the past couple weeks. Notably, Nokia has recently got a patent on a in-any-direction cell phone display and gaming cellphone adapter. → Read More
on a Hand-Held Computer Interactive Device which details the controller. → Read More
and is the focus of our IP-Review… → Read More
The House of Representatives approved a bill to encourage enhancement of expertise in patent cases among district judges. The result could lead to faster resolutions for patent disputes, fewer appeals and less costly litigation, and hopefully — less expensive gear. → Read More
This week’s issued cell phone patents reveal a bit more on smart switching between mobile phones and networks. NEC received an issued patent on a WiFi and cellular phone that uses proximity to determine which network to use while Sprint received a patent on typing with a special code + phone number that identifies which system you want to use. Finally, Cingular got a patent on a means for… → Read More
In January, Denso received a smart patent on displaying GPS and navigation information on a heads up display while Alpine Electronics received a patent on marking a favorite spot using a GPS system. Denso Corporation of Japan, primarily an automobile parts manufacturer, has developed and patented a three dimensional heads up display for a car that uses sensors to detect when certain directions… → Read More
Apple is greater than the sum of its parts. IP is important for any company today and Apple’s whopping $74 Billion market valuation shows that investors love Apple’s IP. Apple’s intangibles boil down to several primary focus areas: its OS, iPod and iPhone patents and applications; the letter “i” (and other Trademarks); and know how in delivering digital media on its… → Read More
Two newly minted patents to Canon and Olympus covering wifi image transfers for digital cameras hit in January are just the beginning… Canon recently received an issued patent covering an external device, such as a PC, that triggers wireless transfer of images from one or more digital cameras in a home or office network. → Read More
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