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GEN-ERIC Patent News
Tuesday, April 6, 2004

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HEADLINES (patents issued a few hours ago..)
The Credit Chat Patent of the Day goes to
Next Card, Inc. of San Francisco for a
Integrating live chat into an online credit card application

The Kick Me Patent of the Day goes to an
Marty Gilman, Inc. of Connecticut for a
Method and apparatus for emulating the kicking of an object
    Index
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NEWS
BJ Services Wins Final Appeal on $101 Million Patent Infringement Award
http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/April2004/05/c8133.html
BJ Services Company announced today that the United States Supreme Court has denied a request from Halliburton to hear its appeal of a $101 million judgment in favor of BJ. The original award was issued in April of 2002 by a Houston District Court following a unanimous jury verdict. In August of 2003, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit unanimously affirmed the judgment. No further appeals are available to Halliburton. The judgment has accrued interest during the appeals process and now totals over $106 million. BJ expects Halliburton to satisfy this judgment promptly. BJ anticipates recording an estimated gain in the range of $55 - $58 million, after taxes, for its quarter ending June 30, 2004, for this income. BJ filed this lawsuit in March of 2000 seeking damages for Halliburton's infringement of BJ's Vistar(R) system, a patented method of fracturing oil and gas formations with a low polymer fracturing fluid.
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Sun, Microsoft Promise End to Patent Feud
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1561361,00.asp
Intellectual property and patents are at the heart of the $1.6 billion settlement between Sun Microsystems Inc. and Microsoft Corp., with more than half of Microsoft's payments to Sun coming from patent disputes involving Java technology. While the settlement announced on Friday ends Sun's antitrust litigation against Microsoft, it also ends a dispute over infringement on Java technology patents that played a role both in the latest case Sun had filed against Microsoft in 2002 and the one the companies settled in 2001, a Sun spokeswoman said.
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Kyphon Sues Disc-O-Tech for Patent Infringement
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040402005501&newsLang=en
Kyphon Inc. (Nasdaq:KYPH) today announced that it has filed a patent infringement suit against Disc-O-Tech Medical Technologies Ltd., an Israel-based company doing business in the United States as Disc Orthopaedic Technologies Inc. ("Disc-O-Tech"), in the United States District Court in Delaware. In addition, Kyphon will file a second patent infringement suit against Disc-O-Tech in the International Trade Commission on Monday, April 5, 2004. Kyphon's complaints allege, among other things, that by importing and promoting its SKy Bone Expander System for use in kyphoplasty procedures, Disc-O-Tech is infringing at least four of Kyphon's U.S. patents, numbers 4,969,888, 5,108,404, 6,235,043 and 6,248,110, all of which generally concern the use of various medical devices to repair spinal compression fractures. Kyphon has asked the United States District Court to award damages and a permanent injunction to prevent Disc-O-Tech's further infringement and will ask the International Trade Commission to exclude Disc-O-Tech's infringing products from the U.S. market.
    Index
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PATENTS OF THE DAY

6,718,313

Integrating live chat into an online credit card application

Abstract: A system and method are described for providing on line chat help to an applicant. An application identifier and a chat applet are inserted into a web page. The web page is sent to the applicant. The chat applet is configured to determine based on an event that the applicant could benefit from online chat and, upon such determination, to send a request to a chat server for a connection and to include the application identifier with the request.

Index

6,715,477

Method and apparatus for emulating the kicking of an object

Abstract: An apparatus that simulates punting and place kicking of a ball includes a prosthetic leg having a mechanism in the foot region to seat a ball. The leg is pivotally-mounted to a frame and mechanically coupled with a foot pedal. Downward force on the foot pedal is translated to the leg causing the leg to whip upward and launching the ball with proportional force and speed. In one embodiment, the frame is collapsible/expandable and includes a roller to facilitate transportation. In another embodiment, the leg is formed of pliable material to eliminate the risk of injury in the event of collision therewith.