patents

Game tech startup Skillz today launched a service that allows brands to easily sponsor and host mobile e-sports tournaments for any game titles that they like, as long as they…

Knotch promises marketers a better way to collect user feedback about the effectiveness of their sponsored content. Now it’s announcing that it has received a design patent for its approach. Basically,…

Incredible design and manufacturing capabilities are available to almost anyone right now, thanks to 3D printing services and the designers/makers who populate those services’ marketplaces with designs that are creative,…

Intellectual property protection is an important consideration for most startups. Obtaining intellectual property protection, such as patents, can minimize competition and act as a defensive mechanism against infringement claims from…

As of June 22, 2016, there were 492 published patent families directed to the theme of blockchain and 192 relating to bitcoin. Patent applications filed over the last 18 months…

One of the things I really love about working with startup founders is that they are by nature an optimistic crowd: They set out to build amazing things, change the…

In the year 2000, the music business was still strong. Record companies produced albums and shipped these physical objects to the stores that sold them. The internet was slowly becoming…

Pop quiz, hot shot: You’re a delivery drone with a flight duration of 20 minutes with your current payload, but because of delays (use your imagination) you’re never going to…

It is no secret that trade secrets are essential to the success of many businesses. Nearly all of us are aware of examples of highly treasured trade secrets, such as…

Bill Gates recently penned an open letter to the 2016 presidential candidates, imploring them to support something he hopes “every candidate will agree on in November: America’s unparalleled capacity for…

In Return of the Jedi, Yoda tells Luke “Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.” Luckily for me, this didn’t…

Xiaomi is moving closer to launching its smartphones in the U.S. market. Today the Chinese company announced a partnership with Microsoft that includes a cross-license and patent transfer agreement and…

What makes Tesla unique? How about everything. Mention patents to most people and their eyes glaze over. Worse, they think of patent “trolls” that some say are harming American businesses.…

As a former patent examiner, I recognize that the patent system, in its purest form, should protect and incentivize innovation through a limited-term contract, offering exclusive monopoly rights covering a…

Faraday Future has its first U.S. patent in hand for a smaller, more powerful inverter. So it’s definitely not as sexy as the Batmobile-like concept car the company brought to…

Patent trolls, more formally known as Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs), pose a major threat to American businesses. A study published by the Boston University School of Law revealed that more…

We enter 2016 with some mixed signals regarding the value of patents for technology companies. Many are preaching a death of patent rights and are questioning whether to invest in…

A day after the news broke that General Motors was picking up assets from failed Uber competitor Sidecar, today the startup’s CEO finally confirmed the details directly in a blog…

The war continues apace in the world of wearable fitness trackers. Jawbone — which makes fitness trackers, speakers and Bluetooth headsets — has filed a counterclaim against Fitbit in a patent…

A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled Samsung should have been barred from retailing products that infringe on Apple’s patents. Apple had been denied an injunction against Samsung by a…

Patent reform, long a decidedly unsexy topic best discussed over a strong espresso, has been a hot topic in recent years. Even though Congress substantially overhauled the patent system just…

TiVo is preparing to launch a next-generation device reportedly called “Bolt,” which may replace the current Roamio models which have recently seen their prices slashed. But TiVo hardware sales and their…

What’s a tech startup’s most valuable asset? It’s not the seed money. It’s not the workspace. And it’s definitely not the espresso machine or Ping Pong table. The priceless heart…

User experience and user-interface design is an emerging field in the technology industry, even more so in the legal world of patents. (Sometimes this field is known by the shorthand…

Back in April, Google launched a pop-up, temporary marketplace for companies to sell patents, with Google being the sole buyer. Today, the search and mobile giant is expanding that marketplace…

Today the CEOs of Yelp, Yahoo, Twitter, TripAdvisor, Rackspace, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google, Gilt, and Etsy wrote a letter to leaders of the House of Representatives, pressing the politicians to pass…

Google has been a significant player in many facets of the patent world — as a creator, critic, litigator, buyer and big data indexer. Today, it’s taking the wraps off a product that is…

The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that Samsung copied specific Apple design patents related to the iPhone. However, the court also threw out part of the…

A new trio of open patent licenses can help encourage innovation, reduce patent trolling, and help attract top engineering talent. These licenses aren’t just for idealistic hippies. They are legal…

While IBM is number-one when it comes to the number of patents filed in the U.S., in Europe, Samsung is leading the pack. Today, the European Patent Office released 2014 figures…