By: Reuters
Source: www.ibnlive.in.co


Berlin: German patent firm IPCom plans to halt as quickly as possible the sale of all HTC smartphones in Germany, another blow to the Taiwanese firm just two days after it shocked markets by cutting its fourth-quarter outlook. IPCom said on Friday it would enforce an injunction based on a Mannheim court decision from February 2009 after HTC, the fourth largest smartphone vendor globally, withdrew its appeal, which was due to be decided on next week.

"IPCom now intends to execute this injunction in the shortest possible time," the company said in a statement. "We will use the right awarded by the courts, likely resulting in HTC devices disappearing from shops during the crucial Christmas season."

HTC confirmed it pulled the appeal on Friday and said it thought it was redundant as a German patent court has questioned the validity of the patent in question. Analysts and lawyers said the withdrawal gives HTC time to battle against two other patents which could have been decided upon next week, while it can still try to delay the original injunction.
Patent firm IPCom says to stop HTC German sales

"While HTC can try to oppose the enforcement of the injunction, my research shows that the odds are very long against HTC on this one," said German patent expert and blogger Florian Mueller.

Under fire

Possible sales halt in Germany, one of the largest smartphone markets in Europe, comes at a time when HTC struggles to hold on to its position on the smartphone market. "This represents an unwelcome distraction during an already difficult quarter for HTC," said CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber.

Late last month, HTC warned that revenue would fall by up to 8 per cent in October-December from the third quarter, and this week it flagged a much bigger drop, citing tougher competition and the global downturn. The stock has fallen 30 per cent in eight straight trading days.

The popularity of Apple's iPhones and Samsung Electronics's Galaxy line-up, recession-weary shoppers and long-running lawsuits have taken the gloss off what was one of the industry's biggest success stories. IPCom has battled for years against HTC and Nokia in European courts.

IPCom had acquired Bosch's mobile telephony patent portfolio, created between the mid-1980s and 2000, which includes about 160 patent families worldwide, including some of the key patents in the wireless industry, such as patent 100, which standardises a cellphone's first connection to a network.

Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/patent-firm-ipcom-says-to-stop-htc-german-sales/206410-11.html

By: Tarmo Virki
Source: http://www.moneycontrol.com

German patent firm IPCom plans to halt as quickly as possible the sale of all HTC smartphones in Germany, another blow to the Taiwanese firm just two days after it shocked markets by cutting its fourth-quarter outlook.
IPCom said on Friday it would enforce an injunction based on a Mannheim court decision from February 2009 after HTC, the fourth largest smartphone vendor globally, withdrew its appeal, which was due to be decided on next week.
"IPCom now intends to execute this injunction in the shortest possible time," the company said in a statement.
"We will use the right awarded by the courts, likely resulting in HTC devices disappearing from shops during the crucial Christmas season."
HTC confirmed it pulled the appeal on Friday and said it thought it was redundant as a German patent court has questioned the validity of the patent in question.
Analysts and lawyers said the withdrawal gives HTC time to battle against two other patents which could have been decided upon next week, while it can still try to delay the original injunction.
"While HTC can try to oppose the enforcement of the injunction, my research shows that the odds are very long against HTC on this one," said German patent expert and blogger Florian Mueller.

UNDER FIRE
Possible sales halt in Germany, one of the largest smartphone markets in Europe, comes at a time when HTC struggles to hold on to its position on the smartphone market.
"This represents an unwelcome distraction during an already difficult quarter for HTC," said CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber.
Late last month, HTC warned that revenue would fall by up to 8 percent in October-December from the third quarter, and this week it flagged a much bigger drop, citing tougher competition and the global downturn.
The stock has fallen 30 percent in eight straight trading days.
The popularity of Apple's iPhones and Samsung Electronics's Galaxy line-up, recession-weary shoppers and long-running lawsuits have taken the gloss off what was one of the industry's biggest success stories.
IPCom has battled for years against HTC and Nokia in European courts.
IPCom had acquired Bosch's [ROBG.UL] mobile telephony patent portfolio, created between the mid-1980s and 2000, which includes about 160 patent families worldwide, including some of the key patents in the wireless industry, such as patent 100, which standardises a cellphone's first connection to a network.

Source: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/wire-news/patent-firm-ipcom-says-to-stop-htc-german-sales_625090.html

By: JONATHAN NORWOOD
Source: http://thechronicleherald.ca


In recent times, an increasingly competitive and litigious smartphone industry has spawned a patent arms race, and the need for participants to bulk up their proprietary patent portfolios.
Specifically, an eruption of patent lawsuits has occurred between almost every major developer of smartphone hardware and software in the industry. In many respects, companies are buying insurance against future legal action, injunctions, etc.

Early in 2011, a consortium led by Apple and Microsoft paid an astounding $4.5 billion for more than 6,000 patents owned by the now defunct Nortel Networks.

For anyone without a calculator handy, that equates to roughly $750,000 per Nortel patent. To put the intensity of competition for Nortel’s patents into context, Google opened the bidding at just $900 million (Nortel’s creditors will be happy), and was ultimately shut out completely.

Not to be without a dance partner, Google recently purchased Motorola and its 17,000 patents for $12.5 billion in cash, as well as a thousand or so patents from IBM for an undisclosed sum. This may work to put a lid on the patent race/bidding frenzy in the near term, because Google was really the one driving it.

How much is at risk? Consider the lost sales associated with the EUs recent halt of Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab because the design was too much like the iPad. Similarly, Apple has sued HTC for infringement this year and HTC has in turn counter-sued, claiming the iPhone violates several of its patents. The list goes on.
The mindset has really become one of “if you sue me, I’ll sue you back,” because the odds are that if you hold enough patents, your competitor will be infringing upon one of them.

By the same token, if you don’t have a patent war chest of your own, you are without any leverage. The result has been an increase in demand for such patents, followed by a spike in their valuations.
Consequently, large, cash-rich companies such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft have been patent stockpiling, or buying up patents to protect themselves from being sued.

It is believed that at the crux of the war was Google’s relatively late entry into the smartphone space and the robust growth in its Android operating system.

Because it was largely without a wireless patent portfolio, it had to acquire one in order to protect itself against litigation and to put it on a more level playing field with other wireless giants.

In other words, Google may very well have a great future in the wireless space, but it was essentially without a past in terms of intellectual property.

The winners will ultimately be the lawyers, and the perennial dogs like Nortel, Motorola, and even Eastman Kodak that have seen their enterprise values resurrected by their underlying patent portfolios. Smartphone maker Research in Motion, with its languishing BlackBerry brand, has also been rumoured to be a takeover target, in large part because of its patent library.

Pure play patent companies or patent trolls such as Wilan and Mosaid (who hold patents but never actually plan to manufacture or sell related products) also stand to benefit from valuation lifts over time. They simply sue anyone else trying to manufacture devices that appear to be based on their patents, and may very well become takeover targets themselves.

However, it is ambiguous as to whether their competitive edge will be hurt by their traditional prey, now beefing up their own patent portfolios.

Some industry watchers have been critical of the patent race, suggesting that the resources being allocated toward the collecting of old patents will crowd out investment in new innovation and research and development.

While there may to be some truth to this, the move away from PCs to mobile devices is irrefutable, and too much is at stake, especially for those that are late to the game.

Most of the large players are also sitting on enormous cash balances, so they have plenty of powder dry and itchy trigger fingers.

Source: http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/36321-smartphone-sector-patent-arms-race

By Victoria Slind-Flor
Source: http://www.businessweek.com

(This is a daily report on global news about patents, trademarks, copyright and other intellectual property topics.)

By: Stephanie Bodoni and Aoife White
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com

The European Union’s highest courtbacked extended patent protection for drugs and vaccines thatare effective against multiple diseases.
“The fundamental objective” of the EU rules in question“is to ensure sufficient protection to encourage pharmaceuticalresearch, which plays a decisive role in the continuingimprovement in public health,” the EU Court of Justice, basedin Luxembourg, said in a ruling today.
The case seeks to provide the pharmaceutical industry withclarity on how to interpret EU rules on so-called supplementaryprotection certificates, or extended patent protection, formultidisease drugs or vaccines. The value of even a few monthsof extra protection for a blockbuster drug can’t be understated,said Jonathan Radcliffe, a lawyer at Mayer Brown LLP in London.
Extending patent protection would help drugmakers just asthe competition from generic drugs reaches its peak. Through2016, drug companies face loss of exclusivity on products withmore than $170 billion of sales, according to BloombergIndustries research. Next year drugs producing almost $50billion in revenue face potential competition.

Medeva SPC

The extended patent protection, or SPC, can only be givento the company that owns the patent on a drug’s activeingredient. Today’s case arose after a unit of Medeva HoldingsBV, which belongs to Celltech Pharma Europe Ltd., was refusedsuch SPCs in the U.K. for multi-disease vaccines that consistedof patented and non-patented active ingredients. A judge inLondon sought the EU court’s guidance on how to interpret theregion’s SPC rules.
The EU court adopted a narrower approach than many drugcompanies expected by reiterating that only one SPC can be givenper patent, Radcliffe said in a phone interview.
“It could have a chilling effect on the strategies life-sciences companies will have to adopt, and on their revenues,”said Radcliffe, adding in some cases multiple SPCs have beengranted per patent.
The cases are: C-322/10, Medeva BV v. Comptroller-Generalof Patents; C-422/10, Georgetown University, University ofRochester, Loyola University of Chicago v. Comptroller-Generalof Patents, Designs and Trade Marks.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-24/eu-court-backs-longer-patent-protection-on-medicines-for-multiple-diseases.html

By:IP BIZ
Source: http://ipbiz.blogspot.com

From Reuters' Google quits plans to make cheap renewable energy :

In 2009, the company's so-called Green Energy Czar, Bill Weihl, told Reuters that he expected to demonstrate within a few years working technology that could produce renewable energy at a cheaper price than coal.

"It is even odds, more or less," Weihl said at the time. "In three years, we could have multiple megawatts of plants out there."

A Google spokesman said that Weihl had left Google earlier this month.

Before joining Google in early 2006, William E. Weihl was CTO at Akamai Technologies.

Source: http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2011/11/google-getting-out-of-green-energy.html

By: Scott M. Fulton, lll
Source: http://www.readwriteweb.com

What if a patent granted in the State of Texas were invalid in Delaware? If the United States were a loose federation of states, as originally envisioned by its Articles of Confederation (the forerunner to its current Constitution), the validity of an invention in one state may have been challenged by another. In the European Union - which is not officially bound by a federal government - inventors (including companies) may apply for a European patent. But then all 27 member states have to incorporate all those patents (or not) into their existing systems.

The principal agenda of Neelie Kroes since ascending to the vice presidency of the European Commission (the upper house of E.U. parliament) is to set forth the so-called "digital agenda" for the continent. But she's also the standard bearer for a movement called the single market, where Europe as a whole is recognized as a unified trading partner. Key to her agenda is the implementation of a unitary patent system, where a European patent applies to every member country without question. It's a slow march towards federalism, as well as a move to standardize the classifications of patents, including for software. But today, the pace of that march may have just sped up.

The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (the lower house) announced this morning it has completed work on a standard package of continental patent reform proposals, which will now be brought to 25 of the 27 member states. (Italy and Spain, for the moment, remain holdouts.) The three main components of this plan call for the following:

    A unitary patent system as an "adjunct" to existing methods. As the European Patent Office (EPO) describes it, inventors will still be able to apply for patents in their member countries, but through the authority of the EPO. From there, applicants will have the option of applying for "unitary effect" for the patent - meaning, to have it apply to all of Europe voluntarily. This option apparently addresses member states' concerns raised in previous years, that a pan-European patent system would rob states of legitimate sources of revenue (applications fees, royalties, etc.). Some countries actually have stakes in the licensing of patents such as those protecting standards such as MP3. Under this "adjunct" system, conceivably those revenue streams would remain untouched.

    Adoption of a standardized "language regime" once a translation matrix becomes operational. In other words, until machine translation makes it possible for an application in any language to be translated into English, and from there into a member state's language, an English-language translation of the application must be provided by the applicant whenever the language of the EPO office where the patent is being filed is French or German. This relieves the EPO, for the meantime, from the burden of translating every patent it receives into almost every other language there is.

    The creation of a single European patent court, which won't just be a system for determining the validity of patents and patent applications. It will also serve, as the EPO describes, as "a unified patent litigation system." The three parts of this litigation system would be a court of first instance, an appeals system, and a registry. But divisions of the first instance court will be scattered throughout the continent, with the effect being that patent infringement cases will take place on a Europe-wide level.

It may take several more years before a majority of E.U. member states adopt a unitary patent system. But once that happens, it may suddenly become economically feasible for software and intellectual property patent holders to challenge defendants in both the U.S. and Europe concurrently. With the perceived value of patents among stakeholders and holding companies alike often determined by their projected "take-home" value in future infringement suits, the question would become whether the European or American system would set the bar for the value of intellectual property worldwide.


Source: http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2011/11/europe-patent-reform-changes-t.php

By: LORRAINE LUK
Source: http://online.wsj.com


TAIPEI—Nanya Technology Corp. filed on Tuesday a patent infringement complaint against Japanese chip rival Elpida Memory Inc., its U.S. unit and California-based Kingston Technology Co. after a similar action from Elpida last week against the Taiwanese memory chip maker.

Nanya said it has asked the International Trade Commission to halt the production and sales of Elpida's dynamic random access memory chips and products containing DRAM chips made by Elpida, claiming Elpida's products infringe four of its U.S. patents.

DRAM chips are widely use in personal computers and many electronic products to store data. The complaint comes as major DRAM makers world-wide are suffering from an industry supply glut, which has led to steep price declines and put many manufacturers in the red.

"Nanya is evaluating its other options, including the filing of a patent infringement lawsuit in the U.S. district court. We expect to be compensated for the sale of products that infringe our patents," Nanya Technology Vice President Pei-Lin Pai said in a statement.

Elpida said Tuesday the Japanese memory chip maker can't comment on issues involving lawsuits, while U.S.-based flash memory card maker Kingston, which uses Elpida's DRAM chips for its products, declined to comment.

Patent infringement claims are common in the high-tech industry as companies fiercely compete to set industry standards. Analysts say such disputes typically end in cross-licensing arrangements whereby both parties can benefit from sharing their respective patents. In many cases, companies use claims and lawsuits as weapons in getting the upper hand in negotiations.

Nanya's complaint comes after Elpida said last week it filed a complaint in the U.S. with the ITC, claiming Nanya's products infringe seven of its U.S. patents.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204443404577053110242913468.html#ixzz1eQTWygUD

By: MATT JARZEMSKY AND PAUL MOZUR
Source: http://online.wsj.com


The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that Apple Inc. products don't infringe on patents held by HTC Corp.'s recently acquired subsidiary S3 Graphics, a setback for the Android handset maker.

The news sent shares of the Taiwan-based smartphone maker down by more than 5% early Tuesday, as the decision called into question the rationale behind HTC's $300 million acquisition.

HTC Chief Financial Officer Winston Yung on Tuesday defended the purchase of S3 Graphics, a Freemont, Calif.-based company that supplies graphics and video capability for its portfolio of patents.


Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204443404577052900155171364.html#ixzz1eQSjyv7Q

By: Michael Gorman
Source: http://www.engadget.com

From 'smart' pens to a smarter Siri, Apple's always attempting to find new ways to improve the iPhone, and the company's latest patent application wants to keep its crack-prone glass blemish free. Aptly named a "shock mounting cover glass in consumer electronic devices," the invention claims a tunable shock mount sandwiched between the phone's glass and other hardware. There's also plans for a sensor that can distinguish a "drop event" from normal phone movements and an actuator to prepare the shock mount for impact. Given that it's only at the application stage, we won't be seeing bombproof iPhone displays any time soon, but here's hoping it'll become a product reality someday. Mostly so we can see just how much of a beating it can take.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/20/apple-patent-application-aims-to-keep-iphones-shatter-proof-with/

By: Power Eng
Source: http://www.power-eng.com


New Delhi, Nov. 17 -- Taiwan based Fung Gin Da Energy Science and Technology Co Ltd filed patent application for apparatus for generating electric power using wind energy. The inventor is Chun-Neng Chuxng.

Fung Gin Da Energy Science and Technology Co Ltd filed the patent application on Nov. 2, 2010. The patent application number is 3043/MUM/2010 A. The international classification number is F03D11/00.

According to the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks, "An apparatus for generating electric power from wind energy includes a blade device rotatable relative to a base to convert wind energy into a mechanical rotary power output, and havingan upright rod connected with upright blades and coupled to a generator in the base to convert the mechanical rotary power output into electric power. Each blade has spaced windcollecting ribs extending vertically from a first side surface thereof, thereby defining a wind-collecting space between any two adjacent wind-collecting ribs. A wind-collecting unit includes upright plates mounted on the base, angularly equidistant and disposed around the blade device. Any two adjacent plates define an inwardly converging windguiding channel therebetween. The plates are non-flat so that wind is guided by the plat&s to blow onto the first side surfaces of the blades via the wind-guiding channels."


Source: http://www.power-eng.com/news/2011/11/1543611936/fung-gin-da-energy-science-and-technology-co-ltd-files-patent-application-for-apparatus-for-generati.html

By: Erik Sherman
Source: www.news.cnet.com


A reissue of a patent originally dating back to 1998 -- and that Apple got from Xerox -- has delivered into CEO Tim Cook's hands some serious, and scary, potential control over location-based services. If you thought that Google, Samsung, HTC, and others were already depressed over the legal success Apple has had in fighting Android, it's now officially worse.

Even more, it could bring some important activities of other companies, such as Facebook and Foursquare, under Apple's purview -- which is another way of saying that Apple might be able to tell these companies to pay up if they wanted to use location services. Given that location-based service is one key to the mobile ambitions of virtually everyone else in the industry, the patent could give Apple control over some hot parts of mobile technology, including location-based innovation in advertising, social networks, mapping, flash deals, and augmented reality. And Apple has proven that it's perfectly willing to use legal muscle to deal with competitors.

Location, location, location
The patent that issued yesterday, RE42,927, is actually a reissue of a patent that Xerox received in 2000 and filed for in 1998. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple received ownership of the patent on December 17, 2009. (Yes, once again Xerox came up with a cool idea only to see Apple do something with it, as it did with GUIs and mice.)

In other words, this patent is old enough to predate much of what is now happening in both mobile and social media. Even worse -- for Apple's competitors -- it's broad. Here's the all-important first independent claim that helps set the scope for what the patent might legally cover:
 
A location information system that displays location specific information, the location information system, comprising: a receiver that receives location identification information from at least one site specific object identifying a location.Iadd., where the at least one site specific object is a beacon.Iaddend.; and a transceiver that transmits the location identification information to a distributed network and that receives the location specific information about the specified location from the distributed network based on the location identification information, wherein the location specific information provides information corresponding to the location.

Don't let the odd Iadd/Iaddend text throw you. It seems to show the difference between this newest version of the patent and the previous one. Breaking it down, here's what the claim covers:

The system will display information that is specific to the location the device is in. That could mean text, video, sound, or images. There is no restriction on what the information conveys, so anything from something informative in a visual display to a two-for-one burger special would seem to be covered.
   
The device has a location information system that receives location information from at least one object that specifies the location of the site where the device user is. The patent description makes it clear that this could include GPS signals from space or a barcode plastered on a building. Because "receiver" is another broad term, you could include GPS radios in cell phones or a camera and software combo that would obtain a two-dimension QR barcode. Apple broadened the language to include GPS systems.
   
A transceiver (another general term) sends the location information over a distributed network like the Internet to some unspecified destination and, in return, gets location-specific information in return.

Once the information is back, the device can presumably do whatever it wants with it, whether display the data separately, incorporate it into something else, or even toss it.

This patent is so basic that it would be hard to get around it. Just about any location-based system at its heart has to transmit a local location and receive information in return. That leaves the question of what Apple will decide to do ... and to whom.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57326207-37/look-out-here-comes-apples-killer-location-services-patent/

By: John P. Mello Jr
Source: http://www.pcworld.com


You don't need to be a Steve Jobs to see that as laptops become ever thinner and tablets become more and more popular, convergence of the products is inevitable. As that day approaches, Apple is preparing to be ready for it.

The company received approval from the U.S. Patent Office this week for a patent for a MacBook with a cellular antenna and a rotating display. Such a MacBook could have the super thin qualities of the MacBook Air and the cellular connectivity and touchscreen versatility of the iPad.

It could also steel Apple against the onslaught of Ultrabooks that PC makers are readying to unleash on the world. "This officially announces to the Wintel camp that Apple now has the ability to match or beat the Ultrabook design that is to come to market in 2013 with the [Intel] Haswell processor," declared Jack Purcher, of Patently Apple.

Intel announced the Ultrabook category of PC laptops in May. The line is squarely aimed at the MacBook Air. The first wave of Ultrabooks, based on existing Intel processors, has already begun to hit the market. The units are supposed to be priced under $1000 and be super thin--0.78 inches--or in the case of the HP Folio announced today, even less--0.70 inches.

Next year, the platform is expected to be advanced further with the introduction of units based on Intel's Ivy Bridge processor. A third wave of Ultrabooks is planned for 2013. They would be based on the Haswell processor and consume half the power of today's laptops. Some of them also will sport Windows 8 with its touchscreen-enabled Metro interface.
Patent Details

According to Purcher, the new Apple patent calls for a hinge structure that would allow a MacBook to "rotate relative to the base of the laptop computer." He explained that structure is very much like the second or third generation Ultrabook design spec that allows it to transform into a tablet for simple reading, surfing and/or scribbling with a smart pen.

As for the antenna patent, Purcher said that Apple has been filing patents in that area for almost two years. "It's a forming trend that is certainly illustrating that Apple's industrial design team, lead by Jony Ive, is trying different approaches in creating the perfect Telephonic MacBook," he wrote.

Citing the recent biography of Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs, Purcher argues that the company is in the same situation it was in when it decided to introduce the iPhone. At that time, Jobs knew the iPhone would cannibalize iPod sales.

"The same is true for the future Ultrabook that will sport the Haswell processor and more importantly, support a rotatable display to allow a notebook to transform into a tablet for leisurely reading etc.," he wrote. "Likewise, Apple has to offer a notebook-tablet alternative product or risk having their iPad sales erode at an accelerated pace. With a combo unit, Apple will be able to justify dropping iPad sales if their MacBook-Tablet is the direct beneficiary."

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/244062/new_apple_patent_hints_at_macbooktablet_hybrid.html