Patent Law Practice Center

Technicolor Prepares to Use its 40,000 Patents to Enter the Mobile Patent Wars

Technicolor, the French company that invented the process for color movies, currently holds an estimated 40,000 valuable patents in digital audio and video. Their innovations go back almost a century and have been involved in licensing deals for said innovations for almost sixty years. The longevity of the impact of Technicolor’s visual, audio, and optic patents has somewhat caused them to be taken for granted. Not many can remember a time without Technicolor, but the company is now taking proactive steps to remind us of what it has done, and more importantly, what patents remain active in their arsenal.

As smartphones, tablets, and other electronic devices are igniting international patent litigation over what company is infringing on another company’s technology patent, Technicolor is literally breaking these devices apart. The company has devised a team of 220 employees whose purpose is to take apart every popular electronic device to find possible patent infringements. Read the rest of this entry »

Top 5 Patent Law Blog Posts of the Week

Today we continue our weekly installment highlighting the best of the patent blogosphere from the past week. If there are any patent blogs you think should be highlighted by our Top 5, please comment on this post and we’ll check them out.

1) Deal Book: Research in Motion Projects a Quarterly Loss – In the midst of the mobile technology patent storm, this post highlights what could serve as the impetus behind another set of valuable patents hitting the marketplace: the financial decline of the BlackBerry manufacturer. As Research in Motion is set to announce its second-consecutive quarterly loss next month, this post notes the possibility of, “the licensing of BlackBerry software or “strategic business model alternatives,” an apparent reference to the possible sale of all or part of the company.”

2) IP Watchdog: PTO Proposes Changes to Implement Micro Entity Patent Fees – This post reports on the USPTO’s announcement of a proposed rule change in regards implementing the micro entity provision of the America Invents Act (AIA). The announcement with the Federal Register is titled “Changes to Implement Micro Entity Status for Paying Patent Fees”.  The Office seeks written comments no later than July 30, 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

Anonymous Attack on Facebook’s User News Feed Patent Among the Reexamination Requests Filed the Week of May 21, 2012

Here is our latest weekly installment of Reexamination Requests from Scott Daniels, of Reexamination Alert and Practice Center Contributor…

This past March, Yahoo! sued Facebook for infringement of 10 social networking patents, and soon thereafter Facebook counter-claimed for infringement of 10 of its own social networking patents, most notably U.S. Patent 7,669,123 claiming a method for displaying “a news feed in a social network environment,” specifically, a news feed about people a user knows.  An unnamed party has now requested reexamination of Facebook’s ‘123 patent (see ex parteRequest No. (2)).  Yahoo! denies that it filed the request.  The ‘123 patent attracted a fair amount of negative comment in the blogosphere when it issued in 2010, most of it suggesting that the ‘123 claims were impossibly broad and could stifle competition.

Samsung requested reexamination of a video pixel labeling patent owned by ObjectVideo (see inter partes Request No. (1)). ObjectVideo has sued Samsung and others in the ITC for infringement of the patent.  A parallel infringement action in the Eastern District of Virginia has been stayed pending completion of the ITC case.

Finally, reexamination was requested by an undisclosed party for U.S. Patent No. 7,479,949, that claims a touch screen and names Steve Jobs as an inventor (see ex parte Request No. (8)).  Apple has sued Motorola, Samsung, and others for infringing the ‘949 patent.  Apple’s case against Motorola is scheduled to go trial in June before Judge Posner.  Excellent reports on these Apple cases can be found on almost a daily basis at http://www.fosspatents.com/ written by our friend Florian Mueller. Read the rest of this entry »

Patent Docs: USPTO News Briefs

We are pleased to share the latest from our friends at PatentDocs.org, the Biotech and Pharma Patent Law and News Blog. The authors, Donald Zuhn and Kevin Noonan, are partners at McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff, LLP, and contribute to Patent Docs on a daily basis.

Today’s post is entitled, “USPTO News Briefs,” and it reports on the Office’s announcement of  several AIA implementation dates. It also share the comments that have been posted in regards to the AIA’s implementation. The announcement was published on the USPTO’s website and provides a guideline of what can be expected in the upcoming months.

Read the rest of this entry »

Top 5 Patent Law Blog Posts of the Week

Today we continue our weekly installment highlighting the best of the patent blogosphere from the past week. If there are any patent blogs you think should be highlighted by our Top 5, please comment on this post and we’ll check them out.

1) FOSS Patents: Apple-Samsung Settlement Talks Apparently Ended Without an Agreement – This post discusses how Magistrate Judge Spero of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California entered a minute order for the second day of the Apple-Samsung settlement. The order is silent on the next steps of arbitration.

2) IP Spotlight: Internet Advertising Patent Saga Continues: Supreme Court Orders Federal Circuit to Reconsider Decision in Ultramercial v. Hulu – This post analyzes the decision in Ultramercial v. Hulu and how “the U.S. Supreme Court hinted that a recent decision covering patent-eligibility for medical testing methods is also relevant to Internet-based methods.” Read the rest of this entry »