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Items tagged with patents
It has been more than four years since the introduction of the HTC First, otherwise known as the Facebook Phone. It ultimately flopped and since then we have not heard from Facebook about taking another stab at the hardware market, but never say never. A patent application filed by Facebook with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) outlines a "modular electromechanical device" with a processor module and other interchangeable parts. "The modular electromechanical device includes a chassis and a plurality of functional modules that can be connected to the chassis," Facebook explains...
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Apple and Nokia have made nice on a patent dispute, putting an end to what could have been contentious litigation. Nokia had actually sued Apple at the end of last year after failing to convince the Cupertino outfit to renew expiring licensing agreements that were inked back in 2011. At the time, Apple accused Nokia of morphing into a "patent troll," claiming the once top seller of cellular phones was trying to "extort money" for technologies it did not own. The strong rhetoric from Apple painted the company as a champion of the people. "We are standing up for inventors everywhere by fighting this...
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No other company is more active in securing patents in the United States than IBM. The company has led the charge each and every year for nearly the past two and a half decades and this year set the record for most patents in a single year with a total of 8,088 patents granted to its investors. Among them were over 2,700 cognitive and cloud computing patents, though the totality of it all covered a wide range of technologies, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and areas IBM identified as being strategic ones for future growth. IBM's record setting year breaks down to more than 22...
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Nokia, once the top seller of cellular phones in what feels like a lifetime ago, is suing Apple over claims that its popular iPhone handsets infringe on several mobile patents owned by the Finnish company. The lawsuit is a result of Nokia failing to convince Apple to renew licensing agreements inked in 2011 that are about to expire. Nokia sought to extend those agreements, and had Apple been willing, there would be no lawsuit. Having sold off its handset business, many wondered if Nokia would turn to more aggressively pursuing patent agreements and litigation. A sign of things to come might have...
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Nintendo of America CEO Reggis Fils-Aime was pretty lukewarm on the idea of bringing virtual reality gaming to the masses when he lasted addressed the topic, saying last June that VR technology is too expensive and the audience too small at this point in time. That might be true, but don't rule out VR gaming on the Nintendo's upcoming Switch console that is slated for release in a few months. Around the same time Fils-Aime was making those remarks, Nintendo was busy filing a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that shows the Switch being paired with what looks to be a VR headset of...
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It appears that Apple is bound and determined to improve the keyboard on its MacBook Pro system in some way, shape, or form. Exactly how remains to be seen. We've heard rumors of Apple swapping out the top row of Function keys for touch sensitive control that display icons based on the app a person is using, but that might not be all it has up its sleeve. A newly published patent application from Apple describes a MacBook keyboard that would allow users to adjust the sensitivity of the keys. Apple correctly surmises in its patent application that "certain users may prefer certain keyboards (and/or...
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We may never which came first, the chicken or the egg, but if it comes as any consolation the highest court in the land has agreed to settle a longstanding and tired dispute between Apple and Samsung over smartphones. Specifically, the United States Supreme Court will decide how much of a $399 million patent infringement award Apple is entitled to. This is a case that's been weaving through the court system for the past six years. Apple sued Samsung in 2010 for patent infringement, saying the South Korean electronics maker copied the look and feel of its iPhone handset. Apple ultimately won its...
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Apple has filed a patent application with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) that could flip the script on iPhone and iPad thieves looking for a fast payday. What they'll get instead is a visit from local law enforcement—the patent involves taking a snapshot and capturing the fingerprint of the thief without the sticky fingered culprit knowing. This is really a means of taking biometric security to the next level. Traditionally biometric security measures have been used to help verify a person's identity in place of (or in addition to) inputting a user password. But in this...
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Well this is a little awkward. Apparently Samsung invented the Apple Watch design, or so it would seem based on the South Korean electronic maker's recent patent filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The patent is for a wearable device and included in the filing are several sketches that look remarkably like the Apple Watch family. The discovery was made by Patently Apple, a site that focuses on Apple products and services, but that doesn't diminish the finding. You can check things out for yourself by directing your web browser to Samsung's patent filing and clicking...
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Microsoft has found a new partner in the smartphone sector in Xiaomi, a major player in China that's looking to expand its reach into other territories. To help it do that, Microsoft sold Xiaomi around 1,500 of its patents for an undisclosed sum. The two also entered into a cross-licensing deal as part of what they're describing as a long-term pact. Here's the thing—Microsoft doesn't have anywhere near the same level of market share in the smartphone segment as Google with its Android platform or Apple with iOS, but it's still managed to make a few bucks from the category. One way is through royalties...
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The California Institute of Technology (Caltech from here on out) has filed a lawsuit against both Apple and Broadcom claiming the two companies are using wireless technologies that infringe on various patents in its portfolio. Perhaps coincidentally, two of Apple's wireless products have since been pulled from store shelves. Caltech's lawsuit was filed with the U.S. District Court for Central California. In it, Caltech references patents it owns for IRA/LDPC encoders and decoders. According to Caltech's lawsuit, a range of Apple products use Wi-Fi technology that infringe on its patents, including...
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It's probably inevitable that we'll one day be a race of hybrid humans, a cyborg-like collection of skin and bones supplemented with a growing number of electronic and mechanical devices. Perhaps the road to such a destination starts with injecting an electronic lens into your eyeball, something Google is trying to patent. Though it might sound like science fiction, it's not—Google's patent application describes in squeamish detail the process of swapping out the natural lens in a human's eye with an electronic implant. And there's more than one way to go about it. Optometrists could opt to use...
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Ericsson now has a vested interest in iPhone sales. That's because the two electronic firms came to terms on a global patent license agreement that will see Apple pay Ericsson a royalty on every iPhone it sells for the next seven years. It also includes an initial payment, presumably to cover royalties from iPhone sales while the matter has been in litigation over the past year. It's a cross licensing deal that covers patents relating to both companies' standard essential patents (including the GSM, UMTS, and LTE cellular standards), while also granting certain other unnamed patent rights. Perhaps...
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An administrative law judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled on Friday that Samsung and Qualcomm did not run afoul of the law by importing certain devices into the U.S., according to NVIDIA, which has sued both companies for alleged patent infringement related to GPU technologies. This is the latest development in a case NVIDIA filed against Samsung and Qualcomm last year. NVIDIA claims that certain mobile processors built by Qualcomm and incorporated into several of Samsung's handsets infringed on technologies that cover things like programmable shading, unified shaders, and multithreaded...
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