Sateesh’s Weblog

*A small Indiana company has sued tech heavyweights Microsoft, Apple, and Google, claiming that it holds the patent on a common file preview feature used by browsers and operating systems to show users small snapshots of the files before they are opened.
*Cygnus Systems sued the three companies on Wednesday saying that they infringed on its patent with products such as Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome, which allow users to view preview images of documents on the computer. Mac OS X, the iPhone and Safari also infringe, the company said in court filings. Apple uses this technology in its Finder and Cover Flow Mac OS X features, the filings state.
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*Samsung Electronics has reportedly been ordered to pay compensation of US$7.3 million to Holley Communications (a Chinese company) for violating a patent for a dual-mode cell phone.
*The patent has been filed by Holleycomm on January 15th. 2002—Method and Devices of CDMA/GSM Dual-mode Mobile Communication (patent No. ZL0210174.4)—has basically covered the design ideas and realization methods of main hardware of GSM/CDMA Dual-mode communication products.
*Samsung has sold more than 700,000 cellphones that contain Holley’s patented technologies. The patents are still on sale. The compensation is only part of the sales
*The 20-month patent dispute started when Holley filed the lawsuit in April 2007, calling for a stop of the violation and seeking compensation.
*A month later, Sumsung requested that China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) declare that the patent was invalid.
*The court opened the session in May this year after the SIPO made a response to declare it valid.

Department of Information Technology (DIT), government of India and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) have started a scheme through which researchers can get half of the expenses for filing international patents reimbursed.
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*The combination of mobile TV and the inherently cellular back channel are creating a new category of advertising known as “Call to Action” advertising. Call to Action advertising was virtually non-existent in 2007, but the specialty advertising market will grow to $419 million in worldwide advertising revenue by 2012.

*Call to Action advertising has special promise. A call to action is a feature that allows one to get more information or to communicate with the advertiser while the advertisement is playing. For example, if you see an advertisement for the latest car, you would press the call to action button and an SMS text could be sent to your phone with the nearest dealership or a dealer could send you more information.

*Call to Action leverages the built in return channel of the handset to deliver advertising beyond the capabilities of the existing living room TV experience.”

*It is also found that:

• Total Mobile TV and Video advertising revenue, including “Call to Action” advertising, will exceed $1 billion by 2012
• Regionally, Call to Action advertising will be driven by the North American and Asian markets. Asia tends to lead in driving new applications. North America tends to lead in driving advertising.
• Consumers are demanding more personalization and entertainment content on their mobile phones, driving mobile TV and video subscription revenue to almost $3.5 billion in 2008. By 2012, mobile video and mobile TV will exceed $14 billion
• Mobile TV ARPUs are much higher in North America and Europe than Asia due to the lack of free-to-air alternatives.

• With the combination of a large wireless subscriber base and free-to-air alternatives, Asia has the vast majority of all mobile TV subscribers. By 2012, Asia will have two thirds of all mobile TV subscribers.
  Multimedia intelligence report
  

The Indian Patent Office received 1,000 applications electronically – about 3 per cent of the country’s total filing of patent applications – in less than a year of receipt of the first application filed electronically on 13 July 2007.

India launched a facility for online filing of patents and trademarks application oh 20 July 2007 and the first application of patent was filed on 13 August 2007 and the 1,000th on 24 July 2008.

The Patent Office has targeted 97 per cent e-filing in a couple of years, a government release said..
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The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced yesterday that the number of worldwide patent filings continues to grow, with 1.76 million patent applications filed in 2006, an increase of 4.9 % over the previous year.

According to the 2008 edition of the World Patent Report, the number of patents granted increased by 18 %, with some 727 000 patents granted in 2006 alone. The total number of patents in force worldwide was around 6.1 million at the end of 2006.

China , Korea and the US

WIPO Director General Dr Kamil Idris said: “A major increase in innovative activity in China, the Republic of Korea and the United States has driven the overall growth of patent filings in 2006. This reflects a consolidation of earlier trends which demonstrate a marked shift in innovation hubs around the world.”

The report identifies a growing tendency for applicants to file applications in multiple countries, demonstrated by the growth in filings through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and non-resident patent filings.

Technological fields

In 2005 – the latest year for which technology data are available – computer technology (114 594), telecommunications (116 770) and electrical machinery (121 350) recorded the most intense patenting activity.

Recent pressures on energy resources have also boosted patent activity in the energy sector, in particular in relation to solar energy, fuel cells and wind energy.

Francis Gurry, WIPO Deputy Director General responsible for patents, said “while the report underlines promising trends in the use of the patent system, it also points to the need to find solutions to address the persistent backlogs in workload at many IP offices around the world.”
Download Annual report 2007

*ISA(Indian Semiconductor Association) announced a scheme -Support International Patent Protection in Electronics and IT (SIP-EIT)-to support International patent Protection by SMEs and Technology Start up Units.
*Financial support: Up to 50% of the total patent cost. The support will be in form of reimbursement of expenses in actual to the applicant. Support will be limited to Rs.15 lakhs or 50% of the total expenses incurred on filing each invention whichever is less.

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Verisign wins the patent on Internet typo redirection where the Internet users can find sites even when they mistype addresses.
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Nintendo Co., the world’s biggest maker of handheld game machines, ordered by the court to pay $21 million to a Texas company(Anascape Ltd.) for infringing a patent used in the Wii and GameCube systems. Nintendo have used the invention in their game controllers in which rectangular Wii remote and the “Nunchuk” controllers attached to the remote don’t violate the patent where as Wii Classic Controller, WaveBird controller and Nintendo GameCube violated the patent.
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Industry: Audi’s Norbert Enning, Ulrich Klages, Heinrich Timm, Gundolf Kreis, Alois Feldschmid, Christian Dornberg and Karl Reiter (Germany) for revolutionising automotive manufacturing by making car frames lighter and safer through the use of aluminium.

SMEs and Research: Douglas Anderson, Robert Henderson and Roger Lucas of Scotland’s SME Optos (UK) for developing a new laser scanning technology for the eye which allows powerful but pain-free examination of the retina.

Lifetime Achievement: Erik De Clercq of the University of Leuven (Belgium) for landmark contributions to antiviral treatment, including the development of the drug cocktail for Aids which has become the gold standard of our day.

Non-European Inventors: SRI International’s Philip S. Green (US) for developing a robotic surgical system that has helped to improve surgery in Europe by allowing surgeons to perform complex procedures with the highest precision.

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