The Dolcera Blog

The current issue of the Harvard Business Review has a fascinating study of patent sharks and their tactics. The authors make five recommendations to counter patent sharks. To that, I’d like to make a sixth: Use IP landscaping (samples on our wiki) to understand the key players and key inventions before jumping into a new field.

Macaques control robotic arm and eat with it.

It seems like WalMart too has decided to go with the “tested and true” SAP platform. If this had happened 5 years ago, it would be considered a HUGE win. Today, WalMart doesn’t have quite the cachet… the aura is gone. But a big win for SAP nevertheless.

People research to find new things or invent something useful for the future world. The sentence is easy to read or say but it is involves lot of hard work, dedication and struggle to get the results. These results needs some ownership as the hard work need not to be wasted with a one time copy of his work. There need to be some way to protect the invention. The best way to protect his invention is Patent. It gives substantial rights to the owner of the invention but not the complete rights. Here substantial me he can’t stop 100% to use his invention. Like if someone invented a vaccine for AIDS though he got patent on it he needs to definitely sell the rights to other people to make use of the invention. So, patent is a substantial protection of the invention but not complete.

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Def:
Design patents protect the design of any novel invention with proper utility. We can protect the visual characteristics through this design patents. Some of the examples of design patents include: Ornamental designs of jewelry, furniture, beverage containers and computer icons.
Life span:
The life time of the design patents is 14 years which is 6 years less than the utility patent.
Structure:
The design patent, by contrast, relies primarily upon the drawings to communicate what is protected. The design patent has only one claim. United States Design patent application will include a transmittal, a specification, drawings and a declaration.
First US design patent:
George Bruce was awarded the first design patent, U.S. Patent D1 . The design patent was for a new font.
US classification:
Classification of design patents is based on the concept of function or intended use of the industrial design disclosed and claimed in the Design patent.U.S. Design patents are classified into 33 classes.
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FAQS

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One of my readers have recommended this site and i have gone through this site. I have found lot of good stuff about US patents and it is a very good site for US patents where you can search the US patents and if u want to know about the recent US filing data you should definetly watch this site.
Freepatents Online:
Recent US Patents
Recent US Patent Applications
Recent US Design Patents
Crazy Patents

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*The number of people creating blogs in the US will reach over 35 million by 2012—roughly 16% of the Internet population.
*By 2012, more than 145 million people—67% of the US Internet population—will be reading blogs at least once a month.
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Apple Inc. is being sued by Klausner Technologies that has claimed that Apple iPhone has infringed on the Klausner patent for visual voice mail. Klausner is seeking $360 million in compensation and damages for its patent numbers US5572576 and US5283818 which basically describe a system that allows for the visual retrieval and sorting of voice mail by way of a display.

Patent #: US5572576
Title: Telephone answering device linking displayed data with recorded audio message
Assignee: Klausner Patent Technologies
Filind Date: March 15, 1994
Abstract: A telephone answering device (TAD) which includes a means of intelligently organizing voice messages, associated entered codes such as personal IDs and home telephone numbers, and information stored in the memory of the TAD. These codes or numbers are decoded by means of the caller entering DTMF signals into the telephone which are recognized, recorded and processed by the TAD. When processed with codes and personal information previously entered into the device’s memory, the TAD displays the identity of the callers for each message, thus providing a menu of choices, i.e., a list of callers. This enables the user to access messages in a selective manner based on the identity of the caller. The need to listen to the actual voice messages to determine the caller’s identity and the need to listen to the messages sequentially or chronologically is obviated, saving both time and effort. Additionally, because the voice message is also linked to pre-stored additional data in the data base, when hearing a message, one also can view relevant associated information, such as a fax number, etc., that might not have been left in the audio message but might be important. A remote access device is also provided that allows the user to retrieve and display the callers’ identities and select a message to be played back from a remote location.

Patent #: US5283818
Title: Telephone answering device linking displayed data with recorded audio message
Assignee: Klausner Patent Technologies
Filind Date: March 31, 1992
Abstract: A telephone answering device (TAD) which includes a means of intelligently organizing voice messages, associated entered codes such as personal IDs and home telephone numbers, and information stored in the memory of the TAD. These codes or numbers are decoded by means of the caller entering DTMF signals into the telephone which are recognized, recorded and processed by the TAD. When processed with codes and personal information previously entered into the device’s memory, the TAD displays the identity of the callers for each message, thus providing a menu of choices, i.e., a list of callers. This enables the user to access messages in a selective manner based on the identity of the caller. The need to listen to the actual voice messages to determine the caller’s identity and the need to listen to the messages sequentially or chronologically is obviated, saving both time and effort. Additionally, because the voice message is also linked to pre-stored additional data in the data base, when hearing a message, one also can view relevant associated information, such as a fax number, etc., that might not have been left in the audio message but might be important.

There are several other companies that have paid Klausner to license these technologies mentioned in these patents including AOL which is featuring the technology in its AOL Voicemail service. Vonage also pays for the use of this technology for its Voicemail Plus service. Thus far, Apple and AT&T have not made any comment on this issue.

Klausner is also filing against Comcast for their Digital Voice Mail, Cablevision for its Systems’ Optimum Voicemail, and Ebay’s Skype. The second suit filed in a different court on the same day seeks $300 in damages for patent infringement. Klausner Technologies is an avid patent seeker and was founded by Judah Klausner who invented and patented the PDA and electronic organizer. Klausner has been well known for its aggressive patent mongering.

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Vonage has agreed to settle partially on a patent suit with Verizon after the company was faced with possible interruption of its service. Verizon alleges that Vonage is infringing on seven of its patents on voice-over-IP technologies. A joint statement read succinctly “The parties are pleased to have resolved this matter.”

In March of this year, a jury found that Vonage is infringing on three of the seven patents, awarding Verizon with $58 million in damages. The judge issued an injunction which was stayed pending an appeal. Nevertheless in September, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the earlier court decision. Vonage then filed a petition for a rehearing.

If Vonage wins a rehearing on either the ‘574 or ‘711 patent, or if the injunction is vacated as to the ‘574 or ‘711 patent, Vonage will have to pay Verizon $80 million. If Vonage does not win a rehearing on either the ‘574 or ‘711 patent, or if the stay is lifted reinstating the injunction, Vonage will pay Verizon $117.5 million.

Things got more interesting as AT&T filed a lawsuit against Vonage on October 17 for a patent on connecting a traditional telephone to the Internet. The suit was filed after two years of unsuccessful negotiations, however Vonage said they would resolve the matter with AT&T to prevent court proceedings.

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Apple agreed to settle a patent dispute with Burst.com, ending two years of litigation. Burst agreed not to sue Apple over current or pending DVR patents.

Under the agreement, Apple will pay Burst.com $10 million and get access to Burst.com’s patent portfolio, with some exceptions. Apple won’t have access to four of Burst.com’s current and pending patents, including three pending patents relating to digital video recorder (DVR) technology. Court costs, expenses and attorney’s fees will reduce the proceeds to Burst.com to $4.6 million.

Burst alleges that Apple infringed four patents for transmission of compressed audio and video files in iTunes, iLife, QuickTime and the iPod.

Apple was asked by Burst in 2004 to license some of its patents, saying they were at the pioneering heart of the iPod. In January 2006, Apple sued Burst.com in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking a judgment that the Burst.com patents were invalid and not infringed upon. Burst.com countersued in April 2006, alleging that Apple infringed four of its patents.

Bust also won a $60 million financial settlement from Microsoft in 2005 after a patent dispute over the transmission of music and video with its Windows Media Player.

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