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14th August, 2009 eInstruction Corporation Protects Technology Patent eInstruction Corporation, a premier global provider of learning technology has announced that the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) will examine the company's claim against Qomo HiteVision, LLC for patent infringement. eInstruction seeks to block imports of Qomo HiteVision's QIT30 Prodigy Interactive Wireless Tablet claiming the product infringes upon eInstruction’s patent for its collaborative systems technology used in itsINTERWRITE MOBI(TM) and other products. INTERWRITE MOBI(TM) is a mobile interactive whiteboard system that enables students and teachers to work together on lessons and activities run from a single computer. INTERWRITE MOBI(TM), the latest version of eInstruction’s patented multi-user, multi-tablet system was unveiled in January 2009. The claim against Qomo HiteVision alleges violations of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930and requests the USITC issue both exclusion and cease and discontinue orders. Mr. Steve Kaye, President and CEO of eInstruction said, "The technology we created to support the MOBI system is something we are proud of and will fight very hard to protect," "We are pleased that the U.S. International Trade Commission sees the merit in our complaint and has agreed to investigate further."
Novafora, the company which acquired Transmeta, has stoped operations this month and the intellectual property of Transmeta is expected to be available for sale again. Investors have decided not to continue funding Novafora, which was earlier accused of buying Transmeta at too low price. The reasons why Novafora, which was controlled by two venture capital firms, decided to take over Transmeta were not completely clear. Transmeta had licensed its patents to several large microprocessor companies to generate revenue of approximately $300 million. The company was a pioneer in low-power microprocessor technology, “code morphing” techniques, and very long instruction word design architecture. Intellectual Ventures has now got a patent portfolio to create a new CPU. Eventually, a company that will acquire Novafora may also obtain that valuable intellectual property. 
Exergen sued Wal-Mart, CVS, and some other thermometer makers (including SAAT) for infringement of three patents covering infrared detecting thermometers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that one of the patents was invalid because it is intrinsically anticipated, and the other two were not infringed. The thermometers measure the infrared radiation emitted off a human body to get the surface temperature. The eardrum and the forehead are typical measurement points and the body’s internal temperature is then calculated from the surface temperature and displayed on the thermometer’s digital readout. The three patents in question were: 5,012,813 (“the ’813 patent”), No. 6,047,205 (“the ’205 patent”), and No. 6,292,685 (“the ’685 patent”) of the USPTO. The ‘813 and ‘205 patents reveal measuring the surface temperature of the eardrum, and the ‘685 patent is intended for measuring the surface temperature of the skin on the forehead that covers the temporal artery. The District court construed that “biological surface tissue” means “a living layer of external human tissue having a temperature that can be measured,” and that “internal temperature” means the “temperature of the region existing beneath the surface of the biological tissue targeted for measurement.” SAAT was found to have willfully infringed two of the patents and actively induced infringement of the third, with damages totaling more that $2.5 million. SAAT moved for JMOL, and Exergen moved for enhanced damages. Both were denied and both appealed. SAAT challenged the jury finding that the ‘205 patent was not anticipated by U.S. Patent No. 4,602,642 (“O’Hara”). An infamous patent case about a technology that allows people to search multimedia content is finally going to end. A judge ruled out last week that two patents initially awarded to Encyclopedia Britannica are invalid. The patents were built on the infamous 5,241,671 patent first unveiled by Compton's NewMedia in 1993 at the Comdex trade show. That patent, which covered the retrieval of information from multimedia content owned by Britannica, had been relevant to the many companies selling multimedia CD-ROMs at the time. Following an objection from the technology industry, which argued that the technology had been around for some time and shouldn't have been patented, the U.S. Patent Office agreed to reconsider it. In 2002, the patent office issued a reexamination that lessened the scope of the patent. Britannica was awarded two patents that were built on the '671 patent in the interim period. It filed suits charging infringement of those patents against a handful of companies with GPS technology, including Garmin, Alpine Electronics, Toyota and Honda. One of the patents describes a way to use electronic maps and the other covers an electronic search system. Last year, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled that the narrowed '671 patent was invalid. And the same court earlier this week has ruled that the two patents that Britannica argued Alpine and others had infringed are also invalid.
Pharmaceutical company, BTG is trying to stop certain computer products from reaching America as they infringe on some of its patents. This firm has a long research history and a wide range of patents. BTG filed the complaint to the US International Trade Commission and it claims that Samsung has infringed its patents for NAND Flash memory chips. These chips are used in many common devices, like the Iphone and Blackberry, so the case has some far-reaching implications. Mr. Andy Burroughs, of BTG, has said that the firm had a very strong case against Samsung because two years ago it licensed the same technology to two unnamed firms for a whopping $46 million. Samsung would have to shell out a rather significant amount of cash to BTG if the infringement is proved. The US government's International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled that plates manufactured by VIM infringe Presstek patents. The ITC upheld Presstek's patents as valid and enforceable, supporting its complaint that Israel-based VIM's digital offset printing plates infringe its intellectual property. This ruling may lead to a ban on the import and sale of VIM plates within the US and potential damages dating back to 2004, when the court decided that VIM was first aware that the products might infringe Presstek IP. Presstek has filed suits against distributors in US and Canada and has made an agreement with Ohio Graphco to cease sales. The judge in the ITC decision recommended that distributors, including Spicer's Paper, Guaranteed Service and Supplies, Recognition Systems and AteCe Canada be banned from the import and sale of VIM plates. Presstek General Counsel James R Van Horn mentioned that this decision by the ITC should serve as a fair warning to all distributors of VIM's infringing products. VIM would be filing a petition for review with the ITC and expecting an overturn in the decision
Resin Systems Inc., a manufacturer of advanced composite products for infrastructure markets, now has patent protection in Canada for its RStandard(R) modular composite poles. This patent granted by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, supports RS's broader commercial strategy of fully protecting its unique technology. This patent, combined with RS's existing resin patents, completes the protection of its modular poles and structures. Resin Systems patented product is its award-winning RStandard(R) composite pole. The pole is used as transmission and distribution poles to carry electric grids and as communication towers for various uses including wireless networks and microwave communications systems. Canada, because of its varied geography, harsh environment and demanding terrain, large transmission and distribution grid will benefit from this modular pole technology," said Paul Giannelia, president and chief executive officer of RS. "We look forward to doing our part to help harden and grow the North American power grid, as well as contribute to the international power and communications infrastructure market", he said.
Northwest Airlines is suing GoNorthwest.com, a Spokane based tourist website claiming that the locally based online travel guide infringes on the air carrier’s corporate trademark. Numerous travelers have visited GoNorthwest.com each month for ideas on trips to the Northwest region over the past decade. The airline giant in a letter to the owner of the website has demanded the immediate closure of this website. Northwest Airlines is challenging "GoNorthwest.com" to shut down, saying that the names and practices of the two businesses were too similar. This was followed by a heated correspondence between attorneys in the last month, which has resulted in Northwest Airlines reducing their demands. Northwest Airlines told that, "We are not asking the site to either go out of business or stop using "gonorthwest.com" but that they not use their site in a way that interferes with our brand, such as selling airline tickets." GoNorthwest.com accomplished that they donot book or transport, and donot operate any tours but they provide information for people traveling to the northwest." Microsoft has designed itself a new logo for its forthcoming retail stores, which aims to take on the popular Apple retail stores across the world. The logo has been filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The filing mentions that the logo "consists of four squares arranged in a rectangular grid. Each square is colored to form three square-shaped regions within the square, with the color of each region gradating from dark to light toward the center of the design. The upper left square design is red, the lower left square is blue, the upper right square is green and the lower right square is yellow. The squares are separated by blank space." The official document states that the logo is for "retail store services and online retail services featuring computers, computer hardware, software, computer games, computer peripherals, portable music players and accessories, personal digital assistants, cell phones and accessories, video game consoles and accessories, webcams, books, clothing, back packs, messenger bags, computer bags and novelty items" as an indication to what Microsoft stores will be selling. Beijing’s Founder Electronics Co Ltd, China's No 1 provider of Chinese font products, has brought consumer goods producer P&G Guangzhou Ltd to court for alleged copyright infringement. Founder Electronics is demanding 1.34 million yuan in compensation. The company claims that P&G Guangzhou has used a font developed by Founder Electronics on P&G packages, logos, trademarks and advertisements without permission for the past two years. The font has been used on 63 P&G products and the font involved, or typeface, is called qianti, which means slim due to its resemblance to a slim lady. Founder Electronics sued P&G Guangzhou and international retailer Carrefour in August 2008 for selling products with the qianti font. The case reached a Beijing court in late June. A ruling has not yet been issued. The 63 brands described as bearing the qianti font include the high-recognition P&G names of Rejoice, Crest, Sassoon, Safeguard and Whisper. "If P&G Guangzhzou loses the suit, it will cost a lot for the company to design the logos, package the products and reprint the advertisements. The money which has been invested in marketing is hard to get back," Zhang Bingwu, a senior brand marketing expert has mentioned, and changing the package of the involved products will lower consumers' loyalty to these brands. Otherwise, the company has to pay Founder Electronics to use the font legally," Zhang Bingwu said. Founder Electronics charges P&G Guangzhou 10,000 yuan for a font, which contains more than 6,000 characters. "In fact, with our fonts, 90 percent can be used free. Only special fonts developed by Founder Electronics should incur charges when they are used for commercial purposes," Huang of Founder Electronics said. Founder Electronics had bought the copyright of the qianti font from creator Qi Li and then developed and digitalized the font in 1998. The company registered the qianti font with the National Copyright Administration and has received a copyright certificate from the government agency. Founder Electronics has taken two online game companies Blizzard Entertainment and the9 to court for alleged copyright infringement of its font in addition to P&G Guangzhzou. Companies such as Sony, Samsung and Panasonic have all paid Founder Electronics for the rights to use their fonts legally.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., US Patent Number 7,569,551 entitled "Chemo-and Radiation-sensitization of Cancer by Antisense TRPM-2 Oligodeoxynucleotides," on the method of using OncoGenex' lead cancer drug candidate, OGX-011, to treat certain cancers. The patent, licensed from The University of British Columbia, includes exposure for the method for treating cancers that express the protein clusterin using OGX-011, or any other clusterin antisense oligonucleotide, in combination with any chemotherapeutic agent or radiation therapy. OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. owns or has licenses to approximately 67 granted or issued U.S. and foreign patents, and approximately 140 pending U.S. and foreign patent applications worldwide. Composition of matter patents covering OGX-011, OGX-427, SN2310, CSP-9222 and TOCOSOL? have been issued in the U.S. and certain other jurisdictions. Additional patent applications covering all of these products, as well as other technologies, are pending in the U.S. and certain other countries. TRPM-2 is an historical name for clusterin, and survives in some of the earlier patent filings. SyberWorks Inc., a leader in the Learning Management Systems industry, has signed an agreement with Qualipat, Inc. to provide patent drafting instruction. Qualipat offers an eight hour e-learning course, "Patent Writing for English as a Second Language" and other online courses that are designed to teach inventors, engineers and foreign legal counsel how to write US patents. QualiPat was founded in 2008, based on the idea that better drafting could produce better patents. Mr. Joe Root, the founder of Qualipat states, "We needed a turnkey solution that we could use as a platform to run our training and consulting practice. We selected the SyberWorks Hosted Learning Management System because it was flexible and offered the all functionality we needed to operate our e-learning business. Online course creation is quick and easy. We are able to publish our courses in a matter of minutes. The SyberWorks team is very responsive and answers our questions promptly as they arise." Joe Root continues, "Our current course offering is developed for the Indian technology market but we are planning to expand to meet the need of technology and legal professionals in the pacific rim." Dave Boggs, CEO of SyberWorks, states, "SyberWorks Hosted Learning Management System is the perfect solution for training and consulting companies that need a single solution from which to run their training practice." |
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