Los Angeles – Qualcomm owns thousands of patents and has dozens more in development to add to its significant patent portfolio. Additionally, as a leader in mobile technologies and chip manufacturing, Qualcomm has long captured a significant market share by ensuring that its products are embedded in the top computers, phones and other hand-held devices.
However, its mobile technologies have become more and more important in its company growth plan. Mobile technologies account for 90% of Qualcomm’s patent licensing revenues and a large chunk of the company’s revenue on the whole. Moreover, Qualcomm’s patents are becoming increasingly significant as the use of 3G and 4G networks proliferate. Consequently, the San Diego based communications specialist and chip manufacturer recently determined that its current business structure did not adequately support the desired direction of its development and sales. As such, Qualcomm announced that it has plans to restructure its business operations. That reorganization includes the addition of new units to handle its chip business, effectively separating that part of its business from its key mobile communications and other intellectual property.
This is not to say that Qualcomm’s chip development is not also an integral part of its business. Apple is one of Qualcomm’s biggest customers using Qualcomm’s baseband chips in its tremendously popular iPhones and iPads. Additionally, the Snapdragon chip for smart phones and tablets is being used in Google’s Android and future laptops supporting Microsoft’s Windows RT Operating Systems. Qualcomm is highly motivated to continue its growth in the chip manufacturing field, thus the separation of its critical portions of business are expected to yield positive results almost immediately. To that end, Qualcomm expects that it’s reshuffling of business operations will allow products and services to be delivered more quickly and efficiently.
The tech behemoth also anticipates that separation of its open-source contributions from its 3G/4G patents will allow for greater efforts to increase market shares in both areas. Qualcomm is one of the more prolific and aggressive patent licensing companies with a significant patent portfolio. However, the nature of its internal organization did not allow for as much development in open-source software as many other top companies in the industry. It is anticipated that the recent reorganization will allow for greater contributions to open-source communities, as well as concurrent patent development. Patents are not necessary for contribution, but the restructure will now allow Qualcomm to compete with IBM and other significant open-source contributors without weakening the company’s market share.
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.
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.
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.
Los Angeles – A patent was issued last week to economics professor Joseph Henry Vogel for a system and method for controlling use of academic texts. Patent 8,195,571 outlines a methodology whereby students would be required to participate in a web-based online discussion board, which would count toward their final course grade. The code to gain access to the discussion board would be obtained when the students purchase the associated textbooks. Students who do not buy the textbooks get a lower grade. Second-hand purchase of books would be allowed, but students would still have to purchase a discounted access code. This would allow publishers to charge multiple times for a single textbook and ensure that all profits go directly to publishers and authors, instead of secondary sources.
Los Angeles – In April, Google released its free storage component referred to as Google Drive or “GDrive”, to the public. The GDrive offers Google account holders access to store up to 5GB on its ‘cloud’. By storing software on a cloud, a Google user is able to access their stored items through multiple machines or other services provided online. However, in a lawsuit filed this week SuperSpeed, a small company based out of Massachusetts, claims that the newly released Google Drive infringes on its existing patent. The allegedly infringing U.S. Patent Number 5,918,244 in question was issued in 1999 and is described as a “method and system for coherently caching I/O devices across a network.”
Los Angeles – Cisco Systems filed a lawsuit in federal court against digital video recording company TiVo last week. The basis of the lawsuit is infringement of the technology used for digital video recorders, or DVRs.
Los Angeles – Last week, three ex parte requests were filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) challenging patents held by tech giants Apple and Facebook. One of the challenges concerned Apple’s Patent for touchscreen interfacing (patent number 7,479,949). A second challenge against Apple was related to the document presentation on a touchscreen display (patent number 7,469,381). The challenge against Facebook was in regard to a dynamic news feed about users of social networks (patent number 7,669,123). The parties filing all three challenges are unknown at this point.
Los Angeles – In a partnership with Talk About Curing Autism (TACA), Los Angeles-based GTX Corp. has been granted a utility patent that will focus on GPS tracking location based solutions aimed at aiding families living with autism. TACA is a non-profit organization which provides valuable information and resources to parents whose children have been diagnosed with autism.
Los Angeles – In a surprising twist from an ongoing patent infringement dispute between Microsoft and Barnes & Noble, the two companies have agreed to a new partnership with one another to focus on e-reading and the education market.
