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GEN-ERIC Patent News Tuesday, May 20,
2003
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to Access any Area of Interest Headlines News Patents of the Day Access Official Gazette and
Notices Patents Available for Licensing Patent Employment
Opportunities
Printer Friendly Version ================================================== HEADLINES (patents issued a few hours
ago..) The Steering Dial Patent of the Day goes to
Complex Instrument Technology Corp. of Taiwan for a Dial
communication system of a steering wheel of an automobile
The
You are Getting Sleepy Patent of the Day goes to an Inventor from New
York for a Method and apparatus to create and induce a self-created hypnosis
Index ================================================== NEWS Eaton denied rehearing on patent infringement case
against ArvinMeritor http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/5861534.htm Eaton
Corp.'s petition for a rehearing of its patent infringement case against
ArvinMeritor Inc. was denied by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit,
according to an ArvinMeritor press release Wednesday. Eaton spokespeople were
not immediately available to respond to the denial of the company's request or
comment on its future legal plans regarding the case. In the initial suit filed
in 1997 Eaton alleged Rockwell International infringed on a patent for its
clutchless shifting system. Since the suit was filed, Rockwell spun off the
affected business as Meritor Automotive, which later merged with Arvin
Industries to become ArvinMeritor, based in Troy. Index Park Ridge man wins
$12-million suit in federal court http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-story/localnews/current/pr/05-15-03-138750.html A
U.S. District court has found in Jackson’s favor in a patent infringement case
in the amount of $12 million. Jackson’s idea was a system that could recognize
the tones of individual telephone buttons. By punching various codes, the system
is able to decode the sounds and responds with certain actions. If the idea
sounds familiar, it most likely is. Voice mail systems run in the same way.
Jackson developed a prototype for his idea 20 years ago, he said. The unit is
basically a gray box with a place to plug in a telephone line and a place to
plug in a lamp or other electrical unit. Once plugged into a phone line, a
person can call in from a phone and punch in a code to turn the unit on and off.
Jackson filed for a patent on the idea in 1983 and received his patent three
years later.
Index Lam Files Suit Over Replacement Parts
http://www.e-insite.net/electronicnews/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA299057&spacedesc=news Lam
Research Corp. today said it filed a patent infringement suit against Schunk
Semiconductor and its subsidiary, Xycarb Ceramics, alleging unauthorized sale
and distribution of replacement electrodes used in Lam's plasma etch reactors.
The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
California alleges infringement of Lam's U.S. Patent No. 5,074,456 entitled
"Composite Electrode for Plasma Processes." Fremont, Calif.-based Lam seeks both
preliminary and permanent injunctive relief to prevent Schunk/Xycarb from
manufacturing, selling, or distributing the infringing product. In addition to
compensatory damages, Lam also seeks punitive damages and attorney's fees.
Index ================================================== PATENTS OF THE DAY
6,567,676
Dial communication system of a
steering wheel of an automobile
Background: A
conventional mobile telephone having a hand-free receiver in accordance with the
prior art is mounted in an automobile so that the driver in the automobile can
perform the dialogue function during driving the steering wheel without having
to hold the mobile telephone. However, the driver still has to press the press
buttons on the mobile telephone for performing a dial function whereby the
driver's hand has to leave the steering wheel so as to press the press buttons
while the driver has to turn around his head to see the numbers on the press
buttons for dialing the correct telephone numbers so that the drive's view of
sight will deviate the direction of travel of the automobile, thereby easily
causing danger to the driver during driving.
Abstract: A dial communication system of a steering
wheel of an automobile includes a steering wheel having an annular frame, and a
dial communication device mounted on the annular frame of the steering wheel and
having a dialogue member and a dial member each secured on the annular frame of
the steering wheel. In such a manner, the dial communication device is installed
on the steering wheel so that a driver's one hand holding the steering wheel can
synchronously operate the dialogue member and the dial member of the dial
communication device to perform functions of dial and dialogue.
Index
6,565,504
Method and apparatus to create and
induce a self-created hypnosis
Background: A
hypnotic state has been described as an altered state of consciousness with an
associated heightened level of suggestibility. This heightened level of
suggestibility has been found useful in the field for helping to treat people
with a wide range of problems or issues relative to weight loss, addiction, pain
management, time management and many other areas. Useful techniques for inducing
such an hypnotic state generally fall into three categories: drug induced
hypnosis, concentration induced hypnosis (i.e., the swinging watch) and imagery.
Of the three categories imagery is believed to be the most useful as it produced
a useful hypnotic state (with the associated heightened level of suggestibility)
without the stress of concentration (which also produces an unrelaxed state) or
the side effects of drug induced states.
Abstract: This invention provides a method and
apparatus operable within an interactive computer device for presentation to the
visual and auditory senses. The invention uses the creation and use of a custom
hypnosis script to induce a state of hypnosis and make behavioral suggestions,
Through questions presented, the user is queried for the user's preferences for
hypnotic induction imagery and behavioral suggestion. The user enters the
preferences, employing a keyboard, and/or a mouse, and/or other such device used
to enter information. The program inserts the user responses into a
preprogrammed textual material to compile a complete hypnosis script. A
text-to-speech component of the program enables the user to then listen to the
custom hypnosis script, and thereby experience a complete, custom hypnosis.
Index ================================================== ACCESS OFFICIAL GAZETTE AND
NOTICES Access this week's Official
Gazette http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/patog/week20/OG/classIndex.htm
Excerpt
from OG Notices
Changes to Implement Patent Statute
Certificates of Correction
Index ================================================== PATENTS AVAILABLE FOR
LICENSING
to Learn More or to List a Patent
Plug-and-play smart data
cable The invention includes a smart, plug-and-play cable capable of
transparently translating between two different communication protocols. The
cables are "plug-and-play" such that two devices can be coupled together for
communication without the requirement that the user perform any special set-up
steps in order for it to work. To implement this plug-and-play functionality,
the smart cable of the present invention determines which communication
protocols are required at each of its ports, and selects, activates, enables, or
downloads the appropriate communication protocol drivers to enable proper
operation.
Financial screening system In an on-line financial
screening service, a database of financial and intellectual property information
is searched to find at least one financial security matching user defined
financial search criteria. Selection preferences for a financial security are
defined as search criteria. The databases are repeatedly searched for records
matching the financial selection criteria preferences of the user. Financial
securities meeting the users search criteria are then matched to an intellectual
property database to determine the number of patents a financial security has
been issued.
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