Patent Application

IBM Tops the Patent Charts, Again

January 12, 2013, by Mandour & Associates, APC

Los Angeles – For the 20th year in a row, International Business Machines Corp has been named the number one assignee of patents in the United States, according to IFI CLAIMS Patent Services’ list of the 2012 Top 50 US Patent assignees.

IBM leads the chart with 6,478 patents granted in 2012, which is more than 20% more than its next closest competitor.  IBM brings in an estimated $1 billion a year from licensing its patent portfolio.  In addition to the income, IBM uses its portfolio of patents to protect itself from litigation brought on by competitors and patent-holding firms.

Not surprisingly, Samsung Electronics Co made the number two spot with 5,081 patents granted last year.  The top ten is rounded out with other technology giants, such as Sony, Panasonic, Microsoft, Toshiba and other popular electronics brands.

However, there are a few names that surprisingly did not come close to the top ten.  Apple Inc came in at number 22, with only 1136 patents granted in 2012.  Google, Apple’s patent war rival, came in just ahead in the number 21 spot with 1151 patents granted.   Though the technology giants are lower on the list, the two companies made the biggest climb from their rankings last year.  Apple jumped from the 39th to 22nd spot and Google made an astounding jump from the 65th to 21st spot.

Google’s numbers were likely boosted by its purchase of Motorola Mobility in May of last year.  However, it is clear that Google and Apple both see their patent portfolios as a major business tool, as seen by their jump in the rankings and their ongoing patent wars around the globe.

However seriously these companies may take their patent portfolios, they could still learn a thing or two from IBM.  Dr. Michael Karasick, a vice president and computer scientist at IBM, says he credits the company’s impressive portfolio to its diverse range departments, each of which is filled with employees with varying skill sets.

Dr. Karasick also credited IBM’s success to its ability to invent and patent technology that can be used in different disciplines.  One example is the patent it was granted last year which covered the technology used in the IBM Watson computer, which beat the human “Jeopardy!” champions in 2011.  The same technology is currently being tested as an automated assistant for physicians to aid in diagnosing diseases.

With strategies like that, it is no wonder IBM has been able to hold the number one spot for the 20th year in a row.

Tagged as: IBM, Samsung

Patent Chief Defends System Against Google and Other Critics

November 26, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

Los Angeles – US Patent and Trademark Director Dave Kappos defended the patent system against critics, such as Google, who have been claiming the system is broken.

Google and other technology giants have long criticized the patent system, particularly when it comes to the handling of software patents.  Many issues in the debate were summed up in an opinion piece written by Kent Walker, senior vice president and general counsel for Google, which was posted yesterday on Wired.

Walker claimed that patent trolls are taking advantage of holes in the patent system, costing technology giants billions of dollars each year.  He called the government to action, claiming they need to get rid of bad software patents that have been issued, prevent bad software patents from being issued in the future, and provide “clearer rules for damages and awarding costs.”  Walker claimed that bad software patents include overly broad patents and business method patents.

The patent trolls are not only bad for businesses, Walker claims they are bad for consumers as well.  He claimed that fighting abusive litigation takes time and resources away from research and development in large companies and completely devastates small companies and start-ups, resulting in quashed competition and suppressed creativity.

These views are shared among many critics of the software patent system, but Kappos claimed in a speech this morning at the Center for American Progress that the software patent system is functioning the way it should be.

The patent office conducted a study of many different software patent lawsuits and found that the courts had found 80 percent of the patents in question valid, according to Kappos, thus getting rid of bad software patents would make little difference in the amount of software patent litigation.  He stated that the software patent wars are not a sign that the patent system is broken, but rather a sign that the patent system is working.

Kappos also claimed that the America Invents Act will take care of many of the issues critics are complaining about, but they have not yet given the AIA time to take effect. Among other things, Kappos said the AIA will help weed out business method patents and bad software patents.

His last major claim against his critics was that technology continues to develop very quickly, so he claims that critics who say development is being harmed by the litigation have no standing.

Regardless of whether the software patent system will end up being reformed or not, it appears that software patents will continue to be a hot topic.

Tagged as: AIA, Kappos

Apple Hopes To Patent Siri iPhone Voice Function

September 27, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

Los Angeles – The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office unveiled a patent application continuation Thursday that Apple Inc. filed earlier this year seeking a patent for its Siri voice assistant feature on the iPhone.

The patent application, originally filed in June and titled “Intelligent automated assistant,” describes a system that engages with the user in an integrated, conversational manner using natural language dialogue, and invokes external services when appropriate to obtain information or perform various actions.

The system can be implemented using any of a number of different platforms, such as the web, email, smartphone or any combination of those platforms.

In one embodiment, the system is based on sets of interrelated domains and tasks, and employs additional functionality powered by external services with which the system can interact, according to the patent description.

In various embodiments of the invention, an intelligent automated assistant is implemented on an electronic device to facilitate user interaction with that device, and to help the user more effectively engage with local and remote services.

The invention can be used to discover, investigate, select among, reserve, and otherwise learn about things to do, places to go, places to eat or drink, times and places to meet others, and any other source of entertainment or social interaction which may be found on the Internet, the patent description says.

“Today’s electronic devices are able to access a large, growing, and diverse quantity of functions, services, and information, both via the Internet and from other sources,” the patent background says. “Many users may have difficulty even discovering what functionality and/or information is available on their electronic devices or on various websites; thus, such users may become frustrated or overwhelmed, or may simply be unable to use the resources available to them in an effective manner.”

“Existing systems are often difficult to use and to navigate, and often present users with inconsistent and overwhelming interfaces that often prevent the users from making effective use of the technology,” the patent background says.

The inventors are listed as Thomas Robert Gruber, Adam John Cheyer, Dag Kittlaus, Didier Rene Guzzoni, Christopher Dean Brigham, Richard Donald Giuli, Marcello Bastea-Forte and Harry Joseph Saddler.

Kittlaus is a co-founder of the company that originally developed Siri, which Apple bought. Kittlaus left Apple in 2011 after the debut of Siri on the iPhone 4S.

Nike Patents Footwear, Golf Clubs With Digital Sensors

September 11, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

Los Angeles — Nike Inc. was issued patents last week for golf clubs that include digital measuring equipment and shoes equipped with data transmission systems to track their use and send the information to a computer or other device.

U.S. Patent Number 8,258,941, issued Sept. 4 and titled “ Footwear products including data transmission capabilities,” covers a shoe with a transmission system that transmits data to a remote system. Such footwear systems may also include activation systems for activating the transmission or display systems.

The transmitted data may be used for various purposes, such as identifying a user of the article of footwear, activating targeted advertising or product information, or confirming the user’s presence at a specific location or at a specific time.

The data may also be used for determining start, finish or intermediate split times for a specific user, confirming athletic equipment usage, providing data for a game or reward program or registering the user for an event or competition, among other possible uses, according to the patent abstract.

U.S. Patent Number 8,257,191, titled “ Golf clubs and golf club heads having digital lie and/or other angle measuring equipment” and also issued Sept. 4, covers golf club heads with sensors configured to measure one or more swing parameters. The golf club head may include several gyroscopes and accelerometers.

In one embodiment, the club head contains three gyroscopes that measure angular rate data along different orthogonal axes. At least one gyroscope may be an analog gyroscope, while accelerometers may provide data regarding the three orthogonal axes associated with the gyroscopes.

The club head may also include software or hardware that perform computer-executed methods for determining one or more swing parameters. Club heads could also include a display device for displaying an output of the swing parameters.

Further aspects of the invention relate to novel methods and algorithms for calculating measurements relating to the swing parameters.

Google Nets Major Video Object Recognition Patent

August 29, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

Google Inc. was issued a patent on Tuesday covering technology allowing for automatic recognition of large objects in videos without any need for a user’s assistance, pointing the way to possible new online video applications on YouTube or elsewhere.

U.S. Patent Number 8,254,699, titled “Automatic large scale video object recognition,” involves an object recognition system that performs a number of rounds of dimensionality reduction and consistency learning on visual content items such as videos and still images. This results in a set of “feature vectors” that accurately predict the presence of a visual object represented by a given name within a visual content item.

The feature vectors are stored in association with the object name which they represent and with an indication of the number of rounds of dimensionality reduction and consistency learning that produced them. Consistency learning involves comparing a feature vector to other feature vectors, such as those for the same object name, and those for different object names, and calculating a score based on the comparisons.

The feature vectors and the indication can be used for various purposes, such as quickly determining a visual content item containing a visual representation of a given object name, according to the patent description.

“Currently, automated recognition within a digital video of images of real-world objects of interest to a user, such as people, animals, automobiles, consumer products, buildings, and the like, is a difficult problem,” the patent description says. “The use of unsupervised learning techniques, in which the explicit input of human operators is not required to learn to recognize objects, has not yet been achieved for large-scale image recognition systems.”

“Conventional systems rely on direct human input to provide object exemplars explicitly labeled as representing the object, such as a set of images known to include, for example, dogs, based on prior human examination,” the patent description says. “However, such human input is expensive, time-consuming, and cannot scale up to handle very large data sets comprising hundreds of thousands of objects and millions of images.”

This is particularly a problem in the context of video hosting systems, such as Google Video or YouTube, in which users submit millions of videos, each containing numerous distinct visual objects over the length of the video, according to the patent.

Inventors Ming Zhao of San Jose, California and Jay Yagnik of Mountain View, California filed the application for the patent in February 2009.

Apple Awarded Patent For iPhone Case That Reduces Background Noise

July 19, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

Los Angeles – Some might call this a year of innovation for Apple, as the pace of new and improved products seems to be increasing. New smartphones, head-mounted computer display devices, a sophisticated new stylus, and new technology abounds as the California company further increases its market share and pushes its stock price even higher.

Smartphone cases were one of the more recent innovations that were both functional, practical, and allowed users to express their personalities with a variety of colors and designs. Apple’s most recent contribution to its patent portfolio is a noise-canceling iPhone case. The newest patent involves a “windscreen”, designed to reduce distracting background sounds that are usually picked up by the device’s microphone and result in decreased sound quality. The patent is also good for all portable electronic devices that enable two-way conversations in real time.

Originally filed January 11, 2011, patent application number 20120177239 shows a diagram with a windscreen over the microphone, which is specially designed to reduce wind noise, air blasts and any other noise that may negatively affect call quality. The patent includes a diagram that shows a “windscreen” sealed across the opening of the case, aligned with the device’s microphone port.

The new product would effectively allow intelligible speech despite background noise and without requiring the user to increase call or voice volume. According to the patent application, the case will be formed from plastic, acrylic, polycarbonate, silicon, or rubber. The screen will likely be of mesh, foam or a feather-like material. And like the current products, the new noise-reduction cases will be available in different colors and designs. A release date for the new iPhone case has not been determined yet. However, judging by the shape of the case in the diagram, it appears that iPhones will remain the same size and shape or the new case will be released prior to any changes down the road for iPhone designs.

Microsoft Patent Published For Customizable Xbox

July 18, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

Los Angeles – Everyone knows someone who owns a videogame system or someone that is anxiously waiting for the latest great thing in that industry. According to recently published patent documents, Microsoft’s latest patent for a scaleable console would allow consumers to customize their Xbox.

Much like what PC gamers can do with desktop computers, the new patent would allow users to add or remove components, creating a video gaming system to suit individual needs. Under the recently published patent application, Microsoft described a basic platform that would be offered with hardware resources to scale up or down according to needs of the user. In addition, the product would have two smaller gaming consoles combined for single use that can be upgraded with an optional third console to assist the other two.

Xbox fans who are clamoring for new products are already wondering what the practical application is for the newest Xbox rendition. Microsoft answers many of these questions in its patent documents which show that the new product will be capable of running apps and opening a strategy guide simultaneously while playing games. Under the new patent, one hardware component would handle the game while another would deal with the apps and other functions. According to Microsoft, this new form of “communication fabric” allows maneuvers and links the console properties, while performing the critical regulation of bandwidth. As such, each hardware component is regulated so as to not unnecessarily leech system resources from critical components.

In addition to a new look and hardware composition, the newest version of the Xbox could be subsidized with monthly payments and yearly updates, eliminating backwards compatibility issues. And although the patent application was only recently filed in 2010, parents and video game enthusiasts are fervently hoping the product will make its way into the marketplace in time for Christmas 2012.

Apple’s Water Damage Detection Device Is Awarded Patent

July 6, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

Los Angeles – Almost everyone knows someone who has accidentally dropped their phone in water and then been forced to deal with the unhappy repercussions. Most people first attempt to dry out the device before resorting to customer service just purchasing a new phone.

With an eye toward this problem, Apple announced this week that it has received a patent for its liquid contact indicator technology. Patent 8,210,032 was awarded for Apple’s technology that can quickly determine whether or not a device has been submerged in liquid. The tiny electronic device, intended for use by customer service representatives, is placed inside the product and provides a visual indicator when a product is dropped into water or any other liquid. The liquid indicator technology included in Apple’s new patent is particularly helpful because water damage is one of the top reasons for product malfunction. Because it is sometimes difficult to determine the exact reason for product malfunction by a simple physical examination or a quick phone call, verification of water exposure is an essential troubleshooting feature. The instantaneous verification of a blinking red light can assist customer service representatives to quickly ascertain the exact nature of the problem, provide more efficient trouble-shooting and help in warranty claim assessment.

Despite the fact that the patent for its water detection device was filed in 2010 and awarded only recently, Apple has included some form of the technology in products since the inception of the iPhone. The water detection technology is particularly important because Apple’s iPhone warranty specifically excludes water damage. Apple’s iPhones currently have a small button that shows red when a device is dropped in water, thus giving customer service representatives the instant ability to ascertain specific details about product malfunction. Consequently, by instantly eliminating the warranty claims of any consumer who has dropped their device in water, the company can save thousands of dollars in insurance claims and countless hours of wasted customer service representative troubleshooting.

Patent Awarded to Interphase For Penveu Interactive Display System

June 27, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

Los Angeles – Interphase announced today that it has been awarded a patent for an interactive display system that has been in development for the last year. The patent for Penvue (patent #8,217,997) covers technology that is invisible to the human eye, but visible to the product’s pen in a display stream. The science behind Penveu was designed to maximize interactivity and collaboration in classrooms and boardrooms. The product and its newly patented technology works with currently installed projectors and large screen displays. In sum, the product enhances installed projectors and larger screen displays and easily makes any flat surface into an interactive display system.

Interphase developed the product after noticing that current interactive whiteboard systems were unable to provide sufficient collaboration between the person using it and their audiences. Penveu technology counteracts this problem with visual clarity to a single pixel and is pinpoint accurate. The new product is so advanced that it utilizes the most up-to-date satellite and military navigation technology. Interphase’s newest product is compatible with any computer connected to a projector, large screen display or television using a VGA connector. Interphase markets the product as portable and compact enough to fit into a pocket. Interphase has four additional patents in process for the Penveu handheld device.

Headquartered in Plano Texas, with manufacturing facilities in Carrollton, Texas, Interphase offers best in class solutions for enterprise and education technology markets. Its products are designed to assist users with connectivity, interworking, packet processing, electronic contract manufacturing and electronic engineering design services. Interphase also designs a multitude of services including desktop visualization and embedded computer vision technology solutions. Its latest product Penveu, is just one in a portfolio of products that were designed to assist its users to best utilize learning and presentation technology. Interphase anticipates that its newest product will pave the way for a whole line of products that it currently produces, as well as a number of high-tech business solutions already in development.

High Roads Granted Patent for Healthcare Benchmarking Technology

June 20, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

Los Angeles – With the search for healthcare affecting the lives of millions of people, healthcare search technology is becoming increasingly important. To date, High Roads healthcare benchmarking technology already touches the lives of over forty million consumers. To further assist these consumers in finding the perfect provider of healthcare services, High Roads announced yesterday that it has been granted a patent for The Lab, its real-time, healthcare management and benefits benchmarking database.

Continuously updated all year long, The Lab contains information for over 12,000 medical plans, as well as cost comparison and analysis for each plan. The newly patented technology is a valuable tool for assisting organizations in comparing plans and determine which might be the best match for its individual employees. High Road’s newest methodology also allows human resource departments to develop new benefits and design strategies to better fit the wants and needs of company employees.

High Roads developed its newly patented technology in response to its observations of the struggles within the human resource departments of many organizations. It noticed that many companies were unnecessarily spending time and resources doing all of the things that The Lab was created for. Once they purchase the rights to use The Lab, companies can access a huge database, compare plans, and analyze parts of each potential healthcare plan. Additionally, plans can be compared against other companies by company size, employee type, industry or geography. Reports are then generated in excel, pdf or html formats to assist companies in making its ultimate decision on which plan to pick. The Lab also provides industry-wide reports, which are published regularly, as well as trend reports to assist industry experts in compiling healthcare information.

High Roads is a privately owned company that specializes in adaptive, collaborative and agile software development and computer services. Located in Woburn, Massachusetts, High Roads technology is currently used by employers to gain maximum benefits over healthcare compliance and costs. In business since 1999, its mission has been to provide the best technology possible to help companies and individuals find the best healthcare possible.

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