patents

Two years later, McDonald's sandwich patent can't hold back Domino's

For centuries people have enjoyed sandwiches, and many businesses have made them without the "critical" protection of patents to ensure a short-term monopoly.

Indeed, here in the United States, Domino's Pizza is making a furious push to up-end Subway's sandwich dominance.

!%!%!%!% pirates!

Have they forgotten that McDonald's filed for a patent on sandwich-making two years ago? The U.K.'s Guardian covered this momentous patent two years ago, but it apparently hasn't struck fear into these would-be sandwich maestros.

Of course, McDonald's was not simply trying to patent the sandwich. It was trying … Read more

Patent suit filed against Facebook: Here we go again

I'm sick of patent lawsuits.

Earlier this week Spansion filed suit against Samsung for alleged patent violations in the latter's flash chips. On Thursday, Leader Technologies actually issued a press release announcing a lawsuit before it had even bothered to serve notice on Facebook, as Techdirt points out.

Is Leader playing to the judge or to the media?

From the press release:

Leader was founded by Michael McKibben in 1997 and is a pioneer in Web-based collaboration platforms. Leader has filed several patent applications, dating back to 2002, that cover its technology. "We have spent a great … Read more

Guess which patents are not infringed in the Microsoft Visual Studio suit?

WebXchange is suing Microsoft--or, rather, three of its customers--for allegedly infringing its patents in Microsoft Visual Studio, as CNET reports. Just desserts? Nah. Microsoft rarely sues anyone, preferring instead to threaten to sue.

Regardless, WebXchange's suit against Dell, FedEx, and Allstate for using Visual Studio is nuclear waste: by suing customers, WebXchange just made software licensing even uglier than it already was, making its own future business as difficult as it will become for Microsoft and every other vendor. Nice one, bozo. Suing customers--in this case--is always bad form and serves to hurt all players in the industry.

One … Read more

Microsoft in patent battle over Visual Studio

Aiming to head off further legal action against its customers, Microsoft is asking a federal court to declare that its Visual Studio product doesn't violate patents from WebXchange.

In a suit filed last week in San Francisco, Microsoft seeks a declaration that WebXchange's patents are invalid, unenforceable, or that Microsoft does not infringe on the patents. The move comes after WebXchange sued three Microsoft customers earlier this year in Delaware.

In its suit, Microsoft said that WebXchange's lawsuit has "placed a cloud over Visual Studio software, Web services, and the SOAP protocol."

"Microsoft filed … Read more

Spansion, Kodak file patent suits against Samsung

Spansion and Kodak slammed Samsung with two separate patent infringement lawsuits Monday.

Spansion, one of the world's largest suppliers of flash memory chips, on Monday announced it has filed two patent infringement complaints against Samsung with the International Trade Commission and in the U.S. District Court in Delaware.

Spansion is seeking the exclusion from the U.S. market of more than 100 million MP3 players, cell phones, digital cameras, and other consumer electronics devices containing Samsung's allegedly infringing flash memory components.

The complaint also seeks an injunction and treble damages for alleged patent violations relating to Samsung … Read more

Microsoft employee: 'Ignorance is bliss and strongly recommended' on patents

A Microsoft employee--Eric Brechner--has finally stated the obvious on patents: they're worthless in terms of providing "disclosure" for would-be infringers (or licensees). It would appear that they're also worthless in terms of helping licensors:

When using existing libraries, services, tools, and methods from outside Microsoft, we must be respectful of licenses, copyrights, and patents. Generally, you want to carefully research licenses and copyrights (your contact in Legal and Corporate Affairs can help), and never search, view, or speculate about patents. I was confused by this guidance till I wrote and reviewed one of my own patents. … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 844: Number one in space junk, USA!

First if you're a U.S. citizen, then go vote on Tuesday. Second, feel the pride of what we suspect to be our country's lead in space junk. We also cover the new Nehalem processor details, uncover a few more details about Windows 7, and of course, give you more details on the space junk that may hit your head tomorrow. I suspect it's the nefarious plot of one candidate or another to keep you from the polls. Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 844

Intel Core i7 chip reviews arrive–yes, it’s fast http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10080831-64.html … Read more

Mformation sues RIM for patent infringement

Mformation, a maker of mobile device management software, said Friday that it has sued Research In Motion for patent infringement.

According to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, RIM is infringing on two of Mformation's patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 6,970,917 and 7,343,408, by making, using, and selling RIM's BlackBerry devices and their management software.

"After refusing to license Mformation's disclosed systems and software, RIM modified its BlackBerry software to include Mformation's patented systems and methods of remote management," New Jersey-based Mformation said in a … Read more

Patent ruling good or bad for tech?

Now that the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that abstract processes, or business methods, cannot be patented, it's important to look at how this could affect the tech industry.

The case in question was rejected because the patent at issue was a process not tied to a "machine," which is one standard for patentability.

Overall, it seems like a ruling that should favor companies that make hardware and software because while it narrows the types of patents that can be filed, in return should protect them from the frivolous patent suits that have flooded the … Read more

Google's looming patent hammer in the cloud

According to SYS-CON, Google's cloud computing patent portfolio, and specifically its patent application for "Encoding and Adaptive, Scalable Accessing of Distributed Models", gives it a "multi-year lead in cloud computing." Could it also give it a club to pummel would-be competitors?

As SYS-CON's Stephen Arnold suggests:

Google can, with the deployment of software, deliver global services that other companies cannot match in terms of speed of deployment, operation, and enhancement...(T)his patent document is an indication that Google can put its foot on the gas pedal at any time and operate in a … Read more