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GEN-ERIC Patent News
Tuesday, March 30, 2004

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HEADLINES (patents issued a few hours ago..)
The Wireless Buddy Patent of the Day goes to
America Online, Inc. of Virginia for a
Method and system for instant messaging across cellular networks and a public data network

The Kick the Habit Patent of the Day goes to an
Independent Inventor from Atlanta for a
Smoking Timer
    Index
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NEWS
HP sues Gateway for patent infringement
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4609097/
Hewlett-Packard Co. filed a patent infringement lawsuit Thursday against Gateway Inc., alleging its rival refused to pay licensing fees on six H-P patented designs. Alleged culprits included laptop hinges, keyboards that require passwords -- even the cursor that points to icons on a computer's video display. According to H-P attorneys who filed in San Diego federal court, Poway, Calif.-based Gateway paid licensing fees from 1994 to 1999 to Compaq Computer Corp., which H-P acquired in 2001. After the first licensing agreement expired in 1999, H-P attorneys say, Gateway kept using patented designs but did not pay for them. Some of the patent infringement claims in H-P's lawsuit involve eMachines Inc., which Gateway acquired March 11.
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Chip designer accuses Intel, Dell of patent violations
http://news.com.com/2100-1006-5180716.html
A chip design company that was once one of Silicon Valley's highfliers filed a patent infringement suit Friday against Intel and Dell, contending the companies have copied its technology for multimedia computing. The lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court in Marshall, Texas, by MicroUnity Systems Engineering, which was founded in 1988 by John Moussouris, a physicist and computer designer. Intel and Dell executives declined to comment. Several industry executives, however, said that the lawsuit could be troubling for the two companies. The lawsuit is being brought by the same legal team that sued Intel on behalf of Intergraph, a maker of microprocessors in Huntsville, Ala. Intel has so far paid Intergraph $150 million in that lawsuit.
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Pay By Touch Loses Motion to Dismiss in $20 Million Patent Infringement Lawsuit
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK3.story&STORY=/www/story/03-29-2004/0002136980&EDATE=MON+Mar+29+2004,+08:09+PM
Pay By Touch (or PayByTouch, formerly Solidus and Indivos) of San Francisco, CA has lost its major motion to dismiss in the $20 Million patent infringement lawsuit filed against Pay By Touch by plaintiff Excel Innovations, Inc. of San Jose, CA. The lawsuit, pending in San Francisco Federal Court, Northern District of California and expected to reach trial in late 2004 or early 2005, cites Pay By Touch for infringing 18 United States Patents and seeks damages in excess of $20 Million. Excel further cites Pay By Touch for willful infringement, exposing Pay By Touch to liability for treble damages of more than $60 Million. The lawsuit is being closely watched by the financial and retail industries, as consumers have shown growing interest in the "tokenless biometric payment system" at issue in the case. Additionally, the lawsuit provides public notice to retailers and distributors that participating with Pay By Touch exposes these companies to significant financial liability for contributory infringement.
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PATENTS OF THE DAY

6,714,793

Method and system for instant messaging across cellular networks and a public data network

Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for instant message communication in a wireless and non-wireless environment. A message is sent from a mobile unit device over a wireless communication network. The message includes a destination address, information associated with the mobile unit device's user, message content and message address. If, according to information previously stored for the mobile unit device's user at the instant message system, the destination address is associated with an instant message function, the associated instant message function is executed at the instant message system using the information contained in the message content, if required as determined by the associated instant message function. If, according to information previously stored for the mobile unit device's user at the instant message system, the destination address is associated with an instant message name, an instant message is created according to the message content and is sent to the user with the associated instant message name. For instant messages sent or received by a mobile unit device with known buddies, the instant message is optimized by tagging the instant message with a routing phone number that is unique to the mobile unit device and buddy combination, whose identity is stored both in the mobile unit device address book and in the instant message routing server.

Index

6,712,075

Smoking Timer

Abstract: What I believe is a totally new way to help the people addicted to smoking cigarettes to quit the habit by spacing the time between smokes and preventing the unconscious reach for one by means of a case or container for the cigarettes with a timing mechanism that will not open the container until a pre-determined time is reached. That timing mechanism can be reset from a few minutes to several hours therefore gradually reducing the absorption of nicotine until the craving for it is negligible and quitting the habit is easy.