A company registered to a virtual mailbox in Seattle’s University District, which four months ago acquired a trio of parking technology patents that predate the iPhone, is using one as… Read More
Microsoft is facing criticism for its new “Productivity Score” technology, which can measure how much individual workers use email, chat and other digital tools. But it turns out the company… Read More
Never let it be said that Amazon Prime Air VP Gur Kimchi thinks small: His latest patent lays out a plan for a launch system that could theoretically send payloads… Read More
Amazon is already testing robots that deliver packages, but a newly issued patent covers a far more ambitious scheme, involving storage compartment vehicles that can roam the sidewalks to make… Read More
Microsoft’s vision for Cortana continues to evolve, and according to a new patent, the next step for the digital assistant could include new capabilities to better read and summarize emails,… Read More
Amazon Go customers could someday enter the store with a simple wave of the hand, replacing today’s process of swiping in with a dedicated smartphone app. The U.S. Patent and… Read More
For a long time, Amazon has been looking into applications for self-driving vehicles — and testing fleets of self-flying drones for making package deliveries. So it only makes sense that… Read More
For the third year in a row, the University of Washington has won the title of the world’s most innovative public university, according to an annual ranking by Reuters and… Read More
IBM filed a lawsuit against Zillow this week, accusing the real estate giant of piggybacking off its patented technology to build key parts of its home value estimation and search… Read More
Microsoft is working on a new portable speaker, according to a recent patent filing, and the inventors on the project point to the possibility that it could be an important… Read More
Efficient package delivery is one of the keystones of Amazon’s retailing business, and a newly issued patent opens up a new frontier in efficiency: augmented reality. The patent, published today,… Read More
Amazon has patented a system for providing home security surveillance as a service, but the real innovation has to do with avoiding surveillance of the home next door. Just don’t… Read More
A newly published patent hints at the system that Amazon just might use to guide delivery drones to their destinations, and verify that the drone’s payloads have been dropped off… Read More
Amazon’s inventors have suggested using drone-dispensing trucks, rail cars and airships to deliver packages, but one of the company’s latest patents lays out a more mundane route for future customers:… Read More
Microsoft this week won a patent for a “curved edge display,” a potential harbinger of where the company’s device efforts are heading. Details on what the curved display could be… Read More
A patent application published today adds more fuel to the fire about the possibility of a new hybrid dual-screen Microsoft Surface device that blurs the lines between phone and tablet. The… Read More
After years of waging patent war on Google’s Linux-based Android mobile operating system, Microsoft agreed Wednesday to join the Open Invention Network and cross-license more than 60,000 of its patents… Read More
Insulated bags for pizza deliveries and cooler bags for ice-cold drinks are nothing new. But how about if you put them together? Amazon’s inventors thought the idea was novel enough… Read More
If Amazon follows through on a pair of patent applications, future fulfillment centers could be transported on their rounds by trains, ships or trucks and deliver their goods with autonomous… Read More
Amazon is well-known for developing delivery drones, and for delivering data through Amazon Web Services — so it had to be only a matter of time before someone at Amazon came… Read More
Warehouse workers confined in cages? That’s the dark vision evoked by an essay delving into the worries that come along with the development of artificial-intelligence devices such as the Amazon… Read More
Amazon has just opened a third Seattle location that makes use of its cashierless Amazon Go grocery shopping concept — and it’s just received the latest patent for technologies that… Read More
Robots are nothing new for Amazon’s fulfillment centers, but a newly issued Amazon patent envisions robots that could toss items around those centers. The 27-page patent, published Tuesday, describes robotic… Read More
For an earlier generation, one of the sweetest sounds of summer was the music coming from an ice-cream truck. For the next generation, will it be the tune of a… Read More
Microsoft, which has spent decades building its intellectual property war chest, says it will give ownership of patent and industrial design rights to its customers when the companies develop technology… Read More
Running over virtual zombies might seem like a strange way to fight motion sickness in a moving car, but that’s exactly what Apple is suggesting passengers do in patent applications… Read More
This is exactly how I would react if a drone came flying at me. The U.S. Patent Office on Tuesday issued a patent for an unmanned aerial vehicle that can… Read More
Seven years after Jeff Bezos had the idea of putting an airbag on your smartphone, Amazon’s inventors have kicked it up a notch by patenting a drone-mounted system that inflates… Read More
Does something need checking out in your data center? Before you send out a technician, why not send out a robot? That’s the upshot of a newly published Amazon patent… Read More
Update for 9:30 a.m. PT Feb. 5: Amazon released the following statement about its patents for a wristband tracking system, saying that such a device is aimed at making it… Read More