Florida Intellectual Property Law Blog

       Find it difficult to remember which codes or keys are used for special keyboard characters; for instance ®, ™, or ℃? MacDailyNews reports that Apple hopes to change that with a keyboard they've just invented that has been likened to a chameleon. Depending on what your needs are, Apple's "dynamically controlled keyboard" features specific keys that can change symbols to reflect the one a user is actually trying to press.

        Changes occur via the integrated workings of the particular software being used, "organic light emitting diodes" (OLEDs) on the keys, and "application specific integrated circuits" (ASICs). A review of the full patent application and the independent and dependent claims they've included is available on the USPTOs website and by clicking here.

       Apple is one of the most innovative companies around in this day and age. I find it impressive that in a field that literally changes by the hour, they continue to spearhead inventive, consumer-driven thinking. Considering their keyboard in a more broad perspective, you can see that a couple of the consumer insights driving an invention of this sort are: 1.) The need for speed in a time-strained world with consumers consistently seeking to get more done faster (and faster all the time); and 2.) The high value placed on personalized response: it's not what "most people" want but what "I want" that counts (and which gets results faster).

       Other companies and inventors recognize these consumer trends and are acknowledging them with innovations of their own. Are you among them? If not, maybe you could be. I'd love to hear about and help you patent your own insightful invention.

Patenting Internet business methods have become almost imperative with cases of infringement steadily increasing.  In one of the recent encounters in this arena, Marshall, Texas-based Polaris IP LLC alleged Yahoo Inc., AOL LLC, Amazon.com Inc., Borders Group Inc., Google Inc. and IAC/Interactive Corp for violating the patent on its automatic message interpretation and routing system. The patent produced by Polaris, is essentially a system that can analyze incoming emails of users and decide whether it can be managed automatically or need to be send to a customer service representative.

Polaris has filed a lawsuit against the alleged offenders in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, as reported in an article in www.computerworld.com, asking for a jury trial, attorneys' fees damages and a permanent injunction preventing the businesses from using its e-mail filtering system.  A year before, the company litigated Kana Software Inc. for violating the same patent. However, the case was resolved in March, and Kana agreed to license the technology from Polaris.

A long-standing patent infringement matter between Microsoft and opponents Eolas and the University of California was settled on August 31, 2007. Eolas launched a claim against Microsoft's Internet browser Internet Explorer which is said to have violated a patent it held. The dispute revolved around embedding of items within a web page. Microsoft has modified the element in its browser and agreed to make an undisclosed payment to Eolas as cited in an article in www.theregister.co.uk

The patent involved is partly held by University of California, which is expected to receive a part of Microsoft's payout. Eolas has mentioned its shareholders that it anticipates a payout worth $60 to $72 per share for them. However, in a letter to its shareholders Mark Swords, Chief Operating Officer of Eolas unveils ''The litigation with Microsoft has taken a great deal of management time and effort and significant financial resources." Further, Mark announced, "we are very pleased that we now can focus our resources on commercializing our existing intellectual property portfolio and developing new fundamental technologies."

I                                                    As a Florida patent attorney, I find myself regularly following news relating to IBM.  Not only is IBM consistently one of the top 10 patent filers in the U.S., but the birthplace of the P.C. was right here in Boca Raton, Florida.  In fact, IBM's main complex was just northwest of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton until they relocated to Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.

Internet patents are asserted by IBM claiming patent infringement by Amazon.com.  IBM has charged the e-commerce giant, Amazon with two lawsuits, seeking unspecified damages as reported by www.pcadvisor.co.uk

IBM further added that it had tried to resolve the issue outside of court regarding the Internet patents for four years before deciding to sue Amazon.

According to the article, Amazon.com deliberately exploits its intellectual property by encroaching on several patents, whose coverage includes the storage of data in an interactive network, the presentation of applications in an interactive service, the ordering of items from an electronic catalogue and the presentation of advertising in an interactive service.

As IBM puts it, Amazon had been originally informed about the alleged infringement in September 2002, but the e-commerce company did not want to go for "meaningful discussions". IBM says that the patents in question are licensed by other companies. However, neither IBM nor Amazon has responded to further queries.

Software patents have been granted to HNTB by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for parts of its TrueViz(R) Transport software system, adding to the list of software patents. According to www.prnewswire.com HNTB has received exclusive rights to technology for the first time and this has been developed for facilitating its engineering and architecture clients' projects.

TrueViz(R) Transport is an interconnected system of procedures and software which increases the interactive visualization for public involvement and design analysis. The code of the software is credited to transform linear point-based data in design output to a chain of mathematically defined surfaces and curves. This simplifies the conversion of design files to 3-D and also brings in more accuracy and needs less time.

Consequently, HNTB can now bring before its clients as well as their stakeholders more realistic imagery of design alternatives. HNTB Companies, an employee-owned organization of infrastructure firms are famous for their functioning in bridges, architecture, transportation, aviation, urban design and planning.

                                         Internet Patents in the news again.  According to a recent press release from Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in their official website www.eff.org, they are set to challenge an allegedly improper Internet patent that is threatening small businesses.

Ideaflood is a self-declared 'intellectual property holding company' that makes use of Internet subdomain patenting against payment from the website hosting companies, which provide personalized and virtual subdomains, such as 'action.eff.org' for 'eff.org', the parent domain.

A reexamination request had been filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), the result of which revealed by EFF and Rick McLeod of Klarquist Sparkman, LLP, proves that the method Ideaflood boasts of inventing was known prior to the issue of the patent and thus goes without merit. Furthermore, website developers were also publicly discussing the creation of these virtual subdomains on an Apache developer mailing list a year earlier Ideaflood claimed its patent.

According to Rick McLeod, the patent system must be for innovation and is not meant to infringe on the public area.

A number of my Florida patenting clients have business patents for innovative marketing methods and other business innovations.  In recent years, business method patents issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) are forced to meet the raised bars of patentability.  NextMark received a patent from USPTO for its series of new techniques the list technology company has invented for choosing mailing lists, as has been reported in an article at www.dmnews.com.

In essence, the patent defines a method for generating a highly targeted mailing list of prospective customers for a listed purchaser. It is partly based on productive prospect lists that was earlier used by the list purchaser, current customers of the list purchaser, prospect lists that the related list purchasers used or it might be any combination of this data.

NextMark's invention is particularly fit for network-based prospect list services that provides prospect lists' database to direct marketers on Internet. According to Joseph Pych, president of NextMark ''We did this because with rising postage rates and waning tolerance of junk mail and spam, it's more important than ever to send your marketing promotions to recipients who welcome your offer."

A ‘head’s up’ to those interested in patenting in the music industry. Woodstock Systems, LLC has reached patent pending status with breakthrough music sharing software Woodstock PDS. According to an article on www.send2press.com, the New York based software development company has created the first software that combines a full-feature media player together with secure Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file lending.

The software enables its users to play digital music easily, listen to thousands of the popular Internet radio stations, and transform their CD's into MP3's. At the same time, they can legally share their digital media files.

To show the importance of exactness in the patent application process, Google Earth is being sued by Skyline Software Systems over subtleties created by minor additions and deletions in the claims section of their patent application. A send2press.com article reports that a federal court judge in Massachusetts has issued a trial schedule and expedited discovery proceedings in response to the plaintiff's request for a preliminary injunction. Skyline is an innovator in the field of 3D mapping, but we'll have to wait and see what the judge will decide.

Patents, not copyrights, are now the only way to give adequate protection to the most important aspects of software. The is true because the "idea" behind a particular algorithm is much better protected as a patentable method than as a narrowly limited expression in copyright law.

Most software designers are interested in preventing others from stealing the core methodology used in their software. As such, a patent on the software should be obtained. The principal benefit of protecting computer software through the patent system is the strength of protection that is provided by a patent.

E-commerce patents have attracted a lot of attention in the news lately and the U.S. Patent Office is facing criticism, once again, relating to their examination and issuance of patents relating to a revolutionary new technology.

I say "once again" because this is not the first time a new technological development has stirred up controversy at the U.S. Patent Office. Over a century ago, there was severe criticism relating to the granting of agricultural inventions.

This was followed by debates about the patenting of the telephone, the automobile, pharmaceutical drugs and the recent criticism of the biotechnology industry. With this historical backdrop, it is little wonder that the development of the Internet has spawned another patenting debate.