patents

Apple wins six design patents in Hong Kong for iOS icons

Apple has been awarded a handful of patents in Hong Kong for the design of its iOS icons.

The company applied for the design patents in June 2012, according to registration documents obtained by Patently Apple. The design patents were awarded by officials in Hong Kong on Friday. According to an image included in the patent application, Apple won design awards for its Siri icon, iMessage, and Notes, among others. It won a total of six design patents.

Apple has been very protective over its icon designs in the past. Last year, in fact, Apple alleged in its ongoing lawsuit … Read more

Judge OKs $527 million Kodak patent sale

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper in Manhattan put his imprimatur earlier today on a previously announced deal allowing Eastman Kodak to sell $527 million worth of imaging patents to a group of technology companies. The list includes Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Facebook, Research In Motion, and Samsung Electronics.

The patent sale is part of Kodak's strategy to emerge from bankruptcy. The company filed for Chapter 11 protection in January 2012. A stipulation of a $950 million loan it received from Citigroup to remain afloat required it to sell off some of its intellectual property. However, the final … Read more

Microsoft patent would make smartphones less annoying

Microsoft is trying to patent a technology that could tone down the brightness and noise of smartphones, with an eye toward reducing the nuisance factor in public places.

Published yesterday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the application for the patent dubbed "Inconspicuous Mode For Mobile Devices" defines a method to shift a smartphone into an "inconspicuous" mode, either manually or automatically.

In this mode, the brightness and contrast would be dimmed while the audio would be disabled. The information appearing on the home screen could also be minimized to dampen the display.

The … Read more

IBM crowned patent king for 20th year in a row

IBM has always been known for raking in more U.S. patents than any other company, but this year signals a landmark: not only is it IBM's 20th consecutive year of earning more patents than any other company, it also made a single-year record with 6,478 issued patents, according to the annual tally published today by IFI Claims Patent Services.

"We are proud of this new benchmark in technological and scientific creativity, which grows out of IBM's century-long commitment to research and development," IBM chairman and CEO Ginni Rometty said in a statement. "Most … Read more

Google withdraws ITC patent claims against Microsoft

Google's Motorola Mobility filed a motion today with the U.S. International Trade Commission to drop two patents from its patent infringement complaint against Microsoft.

The motion (see below) puts to rest part of the ITC patent battle between the two companies, which began in November 2010 when Motorola sued Microsoft over wireless and video coding patents used in Xbox and its smartphones. Microsoft countered that Motorola was unfairly seeking excessive royalty payments for the H.264 video patents, which are an industry essential standard and as such must be offered on FRAND (fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory) basis.

An … Read more

Justice Department, Patent Office urge limiting sales bans

Sales injunctions against products found to infringe on patents may not always be in the public's interest and should be employed in very rare instances, the Justice Department and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recommended today.

The departments' joint policy statement echoes the position of the Federal Trade Commission, which last week ruled Google must stop blocking the use of standard essential patents by competitors. The FTC said in June that such bans on imports could cause "substantial harm" to consumers, competition, and innovation.

Companies that hold patents deemed to be industry essential are expected … Read more

Disney seeks patent that hints at gaming console

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has logged a patent application from Disney that points toward a gaming console that focuses on 3D augmented reality, which may provide a hint about the company's reported gaming endeavor, the Toy Box.

The patent application describes techniques underlying a device that can capture a real scene and then augment it, such as taking a picture of a coffee mug on top of a table and then animating the cup. When the user looks at the mug through the device, it will look like a cartoon character, for example. The images included … Read more

Sony files patent for tech to block used games

Sony has researched and filed a patent for new technology that could be implemented to block used games.

As spotted by a NeoGAF user, patent application No. 20130007892 for an "Electronic Content Processing System" and "Use Apparatus" would associate individual game discs with matched user accounts.

Games that are discovered to be tied to another user's account could potentially be rejected. The system works, according to the document, by attaching contactless RF "tags" to each game that can be be read without a network connection.… Read more

InterDigital calls for sales ban against Samsung, Nokia, others

InterDigital is on the patent warpath again.

The company, famous for holding a boatload of patents on wireless products, filed a complaint yesterday with the United States International Trade Commission against the usual round of tech players.

Citing infringement against seven of its patents, InterDigital wants the ITC to ban the U.S. import of products made by Samsung, Nokia, ZTE, and Huawei.

Specifically, InterDigital alleges that the companies in question have engaged in unfair trade practices by selling certain 3G and 4G wireless devices that violate the seven patents. Without naming any specific products, the complaint points to mobile … Read more