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GEN-ERIC Patent News
Tuesday, June 22, 2004

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HEADLINES (patents issued a few hours ago..)
The E-Dial Patent of the Day goes to
Agere Systems Inc. of Allentown for a
Telephony access using an email address

The Red Light Patent of the Day goes to
Nestor, Inc. of Rhode Island for a
Video-file based citation generation system for traffic light violations
    Index
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NEWS
Judge doubles award to Meridian
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/0/8012E1FA06F36CB986256EBB000BA97E?OpenDocument&Headline=Judge+doubles+award+to+Meridian
A federal judge has awarded Meridian Enterprises Corp. $24.6 million in a patent-infringement suit against Carlson Marketing Group, more than doubling the original jury verdict. Meridian, which is based in Hazelwood, claimed that Carlson had violated its patent on a card-based incentive system that Meridian markets to corporate clients. Meridian and Carlson both offer card-based systems that companies can use to reward employees for meeting sales or performance goals. Meridian's system uses a credit card; Carlson's is built around a debit card.
    Index
Key figure in BlackBerry case dies
http://news.com.com/Key+figure+in+BlackBerry+case+dies/2100-1041_3-5238198.html
Campana died June 8 at the age of 57, a day after an appeal got under way in a high-profile patent infringement case launched by Campana's company, NTP, against RIM and its renowned BlackBerry device for sending and retrieving e-mail wirelessly. "Tom's whole professional life was primarily concerned with offering engineering services for people," said Don Stout, a business partner who worked with Campana for 18 years and an attorney at Antonelli, Terry, Stout & Kraus. "He was good at recognizing problems and was pragmatic about finding solutions." Campana won some 50 patents in his 30-year career, but none raised as much of a fuss as those involved in the dispute over the BlackBerry. Campana was co-founder and president of NTP, and the co-inventor of patented technology the company is seeking to protect.
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Inamed Corporation Reaches Settlement of Patent Litigation with Ethicon Endo-Surgery
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040621005445&newsLang=en
Inamed Corporation (Nasdaq:IMDC), a global healthcare company, today announced that the Company has resolved its patent infringement lawsuit with Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. ("Ethicon") regarding various patents related to gastric banding, which Ethicon purchased from Dr. Lubomyr I. Kuzmak. Under the terms of the settlement agreement executed effective June 21, 2004, Inamed will pay Ethicon $17,250,000 by June 26, 2004, and, pursuant to a license arrangement included in the settlement agreement, will pay royalties to Ethicon on future United States sales of the LAP-BAND(R) System, initially at 7.5%.
    Index
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PATENTS OF THE DAY

6,754,317

Telephony access using an email address

Abstract: A method and apparatus for placing a telephone call is provided in which an email address is used to identify an intended recipient of the call and initiate a telephone connection. An email address is input and transmitted to an email address receiver. A telephone number is determined by a central communications provider via accessing a database or series of databases of telephone numbers associated with the email address. The telephone number thus determined is dialed to connect the user with the intended recipient.

Index

6,754,663

Video-file based citation generation system for traffic light violations

Abstract: A system for generating a traffic violation citation, which operates using at least one image data file including digitized video data. The image data file includes multiple images of an intersection during a red light violation. The image data file is, for example, derived from the output of one or more video cameras positioned to record respective views of an intersection being monitored for red light violations. The disclosed system provides a user with an interface including at least one image display window. The image display window is used to display portions of the image data file. Where the image data file includes multiple video clips, such clips may be displayed simultaneously in respective ones of multiple display windows. The system further includes a selection interface that permits a user to select at least one image from the image data file, for example a current image being displayed in an image display window. The system generates a citation associated with the traffic violation, including a copy of the selected image.