Tag: PATENT

Reported by our ugly sister Engadget, it seems that Microsoft has finally lost its appeal against i4i in the long-running 'XML patent' lawsuit. Microsoft were quick to release a statement to the press, allaying any fears that Office 2007, or 2010, will become unavailable. Office 2010, we assume, will still be released on schedule, and new versions of Office and Word 2007 without the infringing ...

Some plucky researchers at Microsoft have just applied for a new patent, and it doesn't immediately come across as all that desirable. Its purpose: generating realistic avatars. Your avatar is how you portray or display yourself on the Internet, be it on a forum or virtual world like World of Warcraft. An avatar usually takes the form of who you want to be, not who you are. Becoming someone ...

Tireless patent troll Intellectual Property holder Eolas has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against, well.. nearly everyone. The issue at hand deals with two patents in Eolas' possession -- the first of which was the subject of a successful lawsuit against Microsoft back in 2004. The second patent, what Eolas refers to as "a continuation of the '906 ...

After receiving a court order to stop selling Microsoft Word due to patent-infringing technology, Microsoft warned that the consequences could be dire if the injunction wasn't stayed. And by dire, I mean, Microsoft might have had to pull Word for a few months while writing new code to get around the problem. Fortunately (for Microsoft at least, and anyone looking to pick up a copy of Office or ...

If you needed just one more scrap of proof that the U.S. patent system is completely and utterly broken, then you might want to click the "I'm feeling lucky" button. I have a sneaking suspicion that the reviewing agents at the USPTO couldn't tell the difference between a "Graphical user interface for a display screen of a communications terminal" and a hole in the ground. Patent number D533561 ...

Nevermind 2012, according to Micorosoft there's a good chance that a Texas district court judge's recent decision could very well cause civilization as we know it to crumble in a few short weeks. It all starts with Microsoft's need to redesign Word to remove the code which violates i4i's XML patent. "The money! The beautiful, beautiful money!" an entirely fictitious spokesperson stated. "There's ...

Apple has received a patent for the dock utility for launching applications in OS X. Yes, the dock has been around for the better part of a decade, but Apple applied for the patent back in 1999 and didn't receive it until this week. The patent describes an interface for consolidating frequently used items in a "userbar." It also covers the way that items are magnified when you scroll your cursor ...

If you liked the iPod/Nike+ gadget to help you with your runs, you may be excited to know that was merely the beginning of what seems to be a much larger pie Apple has been working on (pun absolutely intended). AppleInsider appears to have gotten its hands on some patent filings made for what looks like a comprehensive "fitness companion." At this point, it looks like a bunch of iTunes-esque ...

It must be a strange week to be an intellectual property lawyer for Amazon. Days after the US Patent Office threw out a patent for "one-click" checkout button, the USPTO has granted Amazon a patent for something that seems at least as obvious: placing a "search string at the end of a URL without any special formatting." Wait, that can't possibly mean what we think it means. They have a patent ...

You're not supposed to be able to patent anything that's obvious. That's a gross oversimplification of complex US patent law, but basically we've always wondered how Amazon got away with patenting a "one-click" shopping button. Sure, nobody else can use the exact same code you did to create a one-click checkout button. But seriously, did the US Patent Office think that the idea to click a "buy ...

A few years back auction company eBay had the audacity to add a feature that lets customers buy items for a fixed price without bidding in an auction. You know, pretty much like every other retailer on the web. But MercExchange filed a lawsuit claiming that eBay's "Buy It Now" feature violated a patent held by the company. The suit's been working its way through the court system for the last six ...

Last month Vonage officials said they weren't sure they could find a way to continue offering VoIP telephone service without using technology that a jury said infringed on patents held by Verizon. But it seems like things are looking up for the troubled company. During a quarterly earnings call, Vonage CEO Jeffrey Citron said the company would be ready to roll out a workaround for two of the ...

So a court decides that your entire business model is based on a technology that infringes on another company's patents. What do you do? Well, if your Vonage and the other company is Verizon, apparently you seek a retrial. It's not unusual for defendants to seek a retrial in addition to appealing. Usually there's not much chance of getting the new trial, but this time Vonage is hoping a recent ...

Ask any tech company and they'll tell you, skull-whacking obvious patents are a giant pain in the posterior. Patents were designed to give real innovators an opportunity to profit from their inventions, but have in recent years become a profit center for many patent portfolio holding robber barons hell-bent on profiting from the work of others. Not so fast there patent Pete.. The Supremes stood ...

It looks like a federal appeals court has issued a permanent stay on a lower court ruling banning Vonage from signing up new customers. Earlier this year a jury found that Vonage's internet telephony service violates patents held by Verizon, kicking off a whole slew of legal troubles for Vonage. Today's ruling came just two hours after the appeals court heard arguments from the two sides. The ...