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GEN-ERIC Patent News
Tuesday, July 1, 2003

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HEADLINES   (patents issued a few hours ago..)
The Post 9/11 Patent of the Day goes to an Independent Inventor from West Palm Beach
for an Anti-terror reporting system

The Spam Charge Patent of the Day goes to Two Independent Inventors from Atlanta
for a Method and apparatus for enabling a fee to be charged to a party initiating an electronic mail communication when the party is not on an authorization list associated with the party to whom the communication is directed
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NEWS
RealNetworks And Listen.Com Sued By Friskit For Patent Infringement
http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=53843
Friskit, Inc., a technology licensing company focused on enabling consumers to conveniently find, personalize and play streaming media, filed suit in Chicago, Illinois Friday, June 27th, against RealNetworks and privately-held Listen.com for patent infringement. The suit cites RealNetworks' RealOne Player Plus and Listen.com's Rhapsody service for infringement based on their use of Friskit's core technology and key features. RealOne Player Plus is the basis of RealNetworks' player and subscription product lines. The suit potentially encompasses revenues from sales of both the players and subscription products.
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eSpeed Files Patent Infringement Suit Against Competitor
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cb_headline.cgi?&story_file=bw.070103/231825325
eSpeed, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESPD), the leader in developing and deploying electronic marketplaces and related trading technology, along with certain affiliates has filed a patent infringement suit against BrokerTec USA, LLC, BrokerTec Global, LLC, its parent ICAP, PLC, Garban, LLC, its technology provider OM Technology and its parent company, OM AB ("BrokerTec") in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The suit centers on BrokerTec's infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,560,580 issued on May 6, 2003, which expires in 2016, with respect to which eSpeed is the exclusive licensee. The patent protects some of eSpeed's proprietary systems and methods of electronic trading.
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BarPoint Files Patent Infringement Suit Against PriceGrabber
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cb_headline.cgi?&story_file=bw.062403/231755729
BarPoint.com, Inc. (Nasdaq:BPNT), an online and wireless product information and shopping service technology provider, today announced that it has filed a patent infringement suit against PriceGrabber.com LLC, and one of its affiliates, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. In addition, the company announced that it has received notice from the United States Patent and Trademark Office that it intends to award BarPoint an additional related patent. BarPoint alleges, among other things, that the PriceGrabber sites infringe upon its patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,430,554 "Interactive System for Investigating Products on a Network", issued on August 6, 2002. In general, the patent covers technology relating to the utilization of unique identifiers such as UPC numbers, barcodes, manufacturers' codes and other coded input to gather and return product-related information. The patent protects both wired and wireless applications of this "reverse-search" technology.
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PATENTS OF THE DAY
6,587,790 Anti-terror reporting system
Background:  In the post-September 11, 2001 world, the public has become acutely aware of the innumerable items that could prove dangerous when under control of certain people, such as terrorists. Numerous alerts have been issued by the government suggesting the use of trucks, boats, planes, cargo containers, tanker trucks, and emergency vehicles as terror weapons. With the realization of the types of vehicles and the sheer numbers of such conveyances that can be converted into weapons of mass destruction, comes the shock of how little information is known about the whereabouts of these items at any given point in time. Fortunately, the larger of the vehicles, such as ships, commercial airplanes, large trucks and trains follow recognized routes along the highways, rivers, tracks and electronic airways in the normal flow of commerce. While these vehicles are moving, during normal operations, there is usually some information available concerning their whereabouts. However, there is no system in place that can quickly differentiate between normal flow of commerce and unauthorized use of a conveyance. What is needed is a security system to monitor and track such vehicles and alert authorities to the possibility of mis-use of the vehicles based on an alert initiated by the vehicle upon surreptitious displacement from an authorized location.

The system of this invention meets this need by providing a security system for tracking and monitoring such conveyances referenced to pre-selected geographical coordinates and providing a communication to proper authorities when such vehicles deviates from a pre-selected area.

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6,583,345 Method and apparatus for enabling a fee to be charged to a party initiating an electronic mail communication when the party is not on an authorization list associated with the party to whom the communication is directed
Background:  Although techniques are known that allow ISP subscribers to screen unwanted email communications, none offers the ability to provide the sender with the option of paying a fee in return for being allowed to communicate with the intended recipient. By providing the sender with the option of paying a fee in return for allowing them to communicate with the intended recipient via email, the common practice of broadcasting spam to recipients with whom the sender has no prior relationship could be hindered or eliminated. However, simply preventing email from being sent to the recipient may cause the recipient to not receive email that the recipient might otherwise have desired to receive. By providing the sender with the option of paying a fee to have the email sent through to the subscriber might allow the sender to receive the email and, in return, generate revenue, which could be allocated to the recipient and/or to the recipient's ISP. Accordingly, a need exists for a method and apparatus that allow unwelcome or unsolicited email messages to be screened out so that they are not downloaded to the subscriber, or to allow the messages to be provided to the subscriber in return for paying a fee.

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ACCESS OFFICIAL GAZETTE AND NOTICES
Access this week's Official Gazette
http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/patog/week26/OG/index2.htm

Excerpt from OG Notices
  • Guidelines for Prior Art
  • Clarification of USPTO Provisions of 35 U.S.C.
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    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.

    Implantable fuel cell
    This invention makes use of an electrostrictive material
    to increase the efficiency of a fuel cell as used for the
    production of power within a human.

    Powder conveying and dispensing method
    and apparatus using traveling wave transport
    This invention is a major advance in printing technology
    by resolving a problem with "toner clouds".


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