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GEN-ERIC Patent News Tuesday, July 20,
2004
================================================== Use Quick Links
to Access any Area of Interest Headlines News Patents of the Day Access Official Gazette and
Notices Patents Available for Licensing Patent Related
Opportunities
Printer Friendly Version ================================================== HEADLINES (patents issued a few hours
ago..) The You are There Patent of the Day goes
to Microsoft Corporation of Redmond for Landmark-based
location of users
The Super String Patent of the Day goes
to Gibson Guitar Corp. of Nashville for a Hydrophobic polymer string
treatment
Index ================================================== NEWS Philips sues Gillette for
toothbrush-patent infringement http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/07/14/financial1613EDT0246.DTL Royal
Philips Electronics has accused Gillette Co. of violating patents for its
electric toothbrush technology, Philips said Wednesday. Philips, the Dutch
electronics and technology conglomerate, uses the technology in its Sonicare
electric toothbrushes, which use microprocessors to direct bristle movement.
Boston-based Gillette sells its power toothbrushes under the Oral-B brand. "We
are confident that our Oral-B products don't infringe any Phillips patents,"
Gillette responded.
Index Telcordia Pockets Patent Payment http://www.boardwatch.com/document.asp?doc_id=56299 Yesterday,
Marconi Corp. announced, as part of its trading update, that it was to pay a
lump sum of $21 million to Telcordia to settle a long-running patent
infringement dispute. The payments had been set to be made over a three-year
period and amount to $23.5 million, but the parties settled on a slightly
smaller but immediate payment. "It was marginally in our favor to do it this
way, and these days we have the cash to make that sort of choice," says a
Marconi spokesman. That cash position has come from Marconi's strategy of
selling off its "non-core assets" to pay off its debts. Although the British
vendor didn't provide any further detail yesterday, the infringement is one it
inherited when it acquired Fore Systems in 1999, and relates to a Telcordia
technology known as Dynamic TDM, or DTDM, designed to allow the transmission of
data and TDM traffic from a single platform. Index Court Upholds $134.5
Million Verdict Against Nellcor for Infringement of Masimo's Patents
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-16-2004/0002211648&EDATE= Masimo
Corporation today announced that the District Court for the Central District of
California upheld a jury verdict against Tyco's Nellcor division of $134.5
million for infringement of Masimo's patents. In doing so, the Court upheld jury
findings of infringement for two Masimo patents, with 15 patent claims. The
Court also sustained the jury verdict that Masimo did not infringe a Nellcor
patent. The court reversed the jury's finding that the infringement was willful
and did not grant an injunction against Nellcor. Further proceedings will
determine the additional compensation due Masimo for its losses due to continued
infringement. The jury finding of willful infringement would have allowed the
court to increase the jury damages award.
Index ================================================== PATENTS OF THE DAY
6,766,245
Landmark-based location of users
Abstract: Humans
identify location and directions based on visual cues, such as landmarks, rather
than a precise coordinate grid. A database of landmarks can be used to determine
the location of a user who can merely describe their location in the same manner
they would to any human contact. The location of the user can be determined
based on the landmarks described in the input, and the areas from which all of
those landmarks are visible. Various databases can be used, including text-based
and three-dimensional. Similarly, various mechanisms can be used to determine
the user's location, including hierarchical approaches, query optimization
approaches, and visibility percentage approaches. Ultimately, the user's
location can be determined without the need for expensive, dedicated
infrastructure, without compromising the user's security, and without subjecting
the user to system outages.
Index
6,765,136
Hydrophobic polymer string
treatment
Abstract: A
hydrophobic polymer is adhesively coated on the surfaces of the wound string
within its interstitial voids, while the exterior surfaces remain uncoated. The
polymer is applied by soaking the string in a liquid polymeric solution to flow
the solution into the interstitial voids. The string is removed from the bath
and the residual solution is removed from the exterior surface of the string
using a resilient scraper. The string is hung to dry for 8 hours in a clean room
environment at ambient temperatures and, more preferably, maintained at a
temperature of between 20.degree. C. and 25.degree. C. Alternatively, the string
is treated by a combination of heat and drying.
Index ================================================== ACCESS OFFICIAL GAZETTE AND
NOTICES Access this week's Official
Gazette http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/patog/week29/OG/index2.htm
Excerpt
from OG Notices
Requests for Ex Parte Reexamination Filed
Registration to Practice
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.
Electric shaver having orbitally moving blades An
electric shaver includes blades which while rotating around their own centers
also orbit around another axis, thus providing that the blades sweep a large
area.
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.
Index ================================================== EMPLOYMENT
OPPORTUNITIES
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