Take a picture with your voice? Microsoft wants a patent on it

voicesnap

Tired of using a timer to snap a picture? Microsoft has a solution for you. Well, it’s not a particularly original solution, at least not at this point. But the company is hoping to patent the approach. A newly surfaced patent application, first reported by Patent Bolt, describes a method for “voice-controlled camera operations,” in… Read More…

Nintendo wins court appeal over Wii motion-tracking patents

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The United States Federal Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled in favor of Nintendo, upholding a previous decision that video game giant did not infringe upon motion-tracking patents held by Ohio-based Motiva LLC. Back to 2008, Motiva accused Nintendo of infringing on two patents it held for “Human Movement Measurement System,” and it claimed that importing the… Read More…

Intellectual Ventures sues Ricoh and Canon, says they pose a ‘threat to innovation’

Intellectual-Venturessmall

Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures on Tuesday filed its second complaint against Canon and first against Ricoh for infringing on its patents dealing with printing technology. IV approached both companies and tried to engage in licensing discussions, but those obviously never panned out. This follows a series of IV lawsuits against Toshiba, Symantec, AT&T, CenturyLink and Windstream, all filed… Read More…

Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures settles with Lattice

Nathan Myhrvold

Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures has reached its second settlement agreement in its case against manufacturers in the semiconductor industry. The company announced today that it signed a license agreement and resolved a patent suit from a case filed in December 2010 against Lattice Semiconductor. Intellectual Ventures reached a similar settlement agreement in January with Microsemi, a maker of semiconductor systems for… Read More…

Amazon patents the milkman

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Amazon.com this week won a broad patent on technology that lets customers schedule product deliveries to their doorsteps or mailboxes on a recurring basis, without needing to submit a new order every time. The patent filing says this approach will be particularly useful to overcome “the challenges presented by the delivery of perishable goods or… Read More…

Mark Cuban thinks “dumbass patents are crushing small businesses”

markcuban

Mark Cuban is never one to shy away from his beliefs. Now, to show his disdain for patents, he’s created a newly-endowed chair at digital rights organization The Electronic Frontier Foundation called “The Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents.” Cuban donated $250,000 to the EFF so it could hire Julie Samuels, EFF’s new Mark Cuban Chair to… Read More…

Goodbye, cracked screens? Bezos, Amazon awarded patent for smartphone airbag

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Airbags aren’t just for cars anymore — they may be coming soon to a cell phone near you. We first reported the story about a patent for “a system and method for protecting devices from impact damage” invented by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Amazon VP Greg Hart last year. That patent was granted today. So what the… Read More…

ContentGuard to partner with top Korean mobile company

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ContentGuard, a subsidiary of the Kirkland-based patent holding firm Pendrell Corp., announced a partnership today with one of Korea’s top mobile handset makers. ContentGuard and Pantech will team up to help improve the content experience on Pantech phones and tablets. The South Korean company was founded in 1991 and is the third-leading mobile manufacturer in Korea behind… Read More…

Apple patent filing looks a lot like Microsoft Surface

applecover

Great minds think alike? A patent application submitted by Apple last year — and made public just this morning — describes a flexible, magnetically attached cover for a tablet device. It’s similar to Apple’s existing smart cover for the iPad, except that this cover can also function as an input and display device. And one… Read More…

Happy or sad? You might not see that ad, if Microsoft Kinect can figure out your mood

adengine

A while back we reported about a Microsoft patent application for a system that would scan your posts on Facebook and other social media (with your permission, presumably) to deduce your mood, interests, and possibly even your intelligence, to help deliver search results more suited to you. Now the company is taking things a step… Read More…