28th November, 2009

USPTO Rejects 17 Rambus' Patent Infringement Claims

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has rejected 17 patent infringement claims asserted by Rambus against Nvidia, the GPU-maker.
 
Nvidia would present these findings of the USPTO to an International Trade Commission judge in Washington D.C., who will make a decision which would serve as a counsel to the ITC, which in turn could bar imports from Nvidia's overseas suppliers if the goods are found to infringe patents held by Rambus.

The alleged infringements cover many of Nvidia's products, including those with memory controllers for SDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR and GDDR3 SDRAM. The USPTO is at present scrutinizing eight separate claims from two other patents.

Apple Alleges Power Adapter Patent Infringement

Media Solutions Holdings is being sued by Apple for alleged infringement of Apple patents. Apple claims that Media Solutions Holdings is making its own line of power adapters that work with Apple laptops. They allege that the company is selling these knock-off power adapters through different websites.
 
The three websites, laptopsforless.com, laptopacadapter.com, and ereplacements.com are cited as places where Media Solutions Holdings sells electronic accessories, including knock-off power adapters for use with genuine Apple portable computers.

Apple's lawsuit mentions infringement of its Power Adapter patent. Apple's patent includes design images of its adapter. Apple is seeking an injunction against Media Solutions Holdings to stop the company from selling the adapters.

Dupont Air Products Nanomaterials Gets Ruling In Patent Invalidity/Non-Infringement Case

DuPont Air Products NanoMaterials, a joint business enterprise between DuPont (Electronic Technologies) and Air Products (DA NanoMaterials) is content as a U.S. District Court Judge has denied all summary judgment motions in DA NanoMaterials' patent invalidity/non-infringement lawsuit against Cabot Microelectronics in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

The judge has denied judgment motions from both DA NanoMaterials and Cabot, including Cabot's claim that DA NanoMaterials infringed Cabot's tungsten chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) patents.

The denial of Cabot's summary judgment motion has boosted DA NanoMaterials’s IP protection pursuits and the company is going to defending its products in this U.S. lawsuit against Cabot Microelectronics.

Ford To Pay $55.6 Million In Infringement Suit

Inventor shows Ford Motor Co. his prototype for new technology. Automaker dismisses the idea. Ford later unveils similar technology in its cars. Sound familiar?

Jacob Krippelz of Aurora has won an 11-year legal battle against Ford over a lighting system which was patented by him in 1991. A federal jury in Chicago had awarded him $23 million in royalties for Ford's patent infringement. An U.S. District Judge has now nearly doubled the award, to $55.6 million, after finding that Ford had sold vehicles with similar lamps which amounts to "willful" infringement, and U.S. patent laws allow courts to increase the damages for willful action by up to three times..

In 1991, Krippelz patented his design for a small lamp mounted to side view mirrors and had sent a copy of his patent to Ford, which did not take any interest in the invention. But after six years Krippelz found out that Ford was using lamps with the same technology for their vehicles. He filed a lawsuit against the company in 1998 and it took eleven long years for the Court to give a verdict.

India And US Sign Agreement On IPRs

Two inter-governmental agreements were signed between India and the United States on signed on Intellectual Property Rights to avert misuse of traditional knowledge through erroneous issuance of patents. The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) access agreement was signed between the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

This agreement would facilitate the USPTO to search the TKDL database of India. The USPTO examiners and staff would be provided training by the CSIR to help them use TKDL tools for search and examination. Another MoU was signed between the office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, Department of Industrial Policy and India's Commerce Ministry and the USPTO, which would ease complete bilateral cooperation on all major IPR issues.

To promote two-way investments between the two countries, a Memorandum of Intent was also signed by 'Invest in America' of the US Department of Commerce and 'Invest India', a joint venture between the Indian government and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for the promotion of investment in the US and India.

Antitrust Lawsuit against Microsoft

Datel, a peripheral manufacturer has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging that the console maker blocked all memory devices from working on the Xbox 360, excepting its own devices.

An attorney representing Datel in San Francisco federal court said that Microsoft has tried to have a monopoly in the market by making a system change that will not identify or allow other memory cards with greater capacity than their own.

A recent dashboard update, which inactived all other unauthorized memory units is the source of conflict. Xbox Live director of programming Larry Hryb, had warned that use of an unauthorised Memory Unit after the update would result in inaccessibility of stored material.
Datel alleges that this move of Microsoft is aimed only at preventing consumers from using Datel’s memory cards, which are less expensive.

Tredegar Corp. in Diaper Patent Dispute

Tredegar Corp., a manufacturer of plastic films and aluminum building products is being sued by 3M Co. for alleged infringement of two patents used to add the “hugging portions” to diapers.

In the lawsuit filed in federal court in St. Paul, Minn., 3M claims that Tredegar has been using 3M’s protected technology in its FabriFlex 200, 300, and 500 series laminates. These products provide the side tabs and waistbands for a CVS Caremark Corp. brand diapers. 3M alleges that Tredegar had intentionally infringed its patent and 3M seeks damages.