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GEN-ERIC Patent News
Tuesday, October 12, 2004

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HEADLINES (patents issued a few hours ago..)
The Scaled Identification Patent of the Day goes to
Sun Microsystems, Inc. of Santa Clara for a
Hierarchical watermarking of content that is distributed via a network

The Physics of Golf Patent of the Day goes to
Walker Digital, LLC of Stamford for
Systems and methods wherein at least one set of possible input parameters to a physics simulation will produce a successful game result
    Index
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NEWS
Tyco Healthcare Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Ethicon Endo- Surgery, Inc.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041011/nem011_1.html
The U.S. Surgical Division of Tyco Healthcare Group LP announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut against Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. relating to Ethicon's Ultracision Harmonic Scalpel Curved Blade surgical instrument. The lawsuit contends that the current version of Ethicon's Harmonic Scalpel® infringes multiple claims of four separate patents assigned to U.S. Surgical. These are U.S. Patent Numbers: 6,063,050, - 6,280,407, - 6,468,286 and - 6,682,544. These patents generally relate to ultrasonic dissection and coagulation systems. U.S. Surgical is asking the federal court to enjoin Ethicon from continuing to make and sell its current Harmonic Scalpel®, as well as for compensatory damages.
    Index
Honeywell LCD patent suit targets PC industry
http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;1651766907;fp;16;fpid;0
Aerospace manufacturer, Honeywell International, has filed suit against 34 PC and mobile phone companies that it claims are infringing on its patents for liquid crystal display (LCD) technology. The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, claimed that the 34 companies were using proprietary Honeywell technology that controls the brightness of LCD screens and reduces interference, Honeywell said. This technology appeared in products such as notebooks, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and digital cameras, among other things, the company claimed. LCD manufacturers LG Philips LCD and Samsung Electronics have already taken a license for Honeywell's technology, it said. The defendants include a who's who list of PC and electronics companies, such as Apple, Dell, Fujitsu, Nikon, Sony, and Toshiba. Hewlett-Packard was noticeably absent from the list.
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Judge: AMD Can't Access Intel Documents
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/business/9872617.htm
A federal judge has refused a request by chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to order its larger rival Intel Corp. to turn over company documents to the European Commission. The commission, a regulatory board that enforces European Union antitrust laws, is investigating a complaint filed by AMD alleging that Intel improperly used its industry dominance to keep other companies from winning market share in Europe. As part of that ongoing probe, AMD sought a federal court order in 2001 forcing Intel to hand over thousands of pages of company documents to the foreign board, even though lawyers for the board itself later told the Supreme Court it did not want the records and argued that U.S. courts should not be involved in a European regulatory matter. The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year, reaffirming an appellate court decision that AMD had a right to pursue the records as potential evidence. But the high court said the discretion to demand the records belonged to a lower court.
    Index
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PATENTS OF THE DAY

6,804,779

Hierarchical watermarking of content that is distributed via a network

Abstract: Content is distributed via a network. Hierarchical watermarks are embedded in the content to prevent unauthorized copying of the content. In particular, a first digital watermark is embedded by a content source prior to distributing content to an intermediary distributor. The first watermark identifies the content source and the distributor. Clients that request copies of the content from the distributor receive copies that have a second digital watermark embedded. The second digital watermark identifies the distributor and the client. This approach alleviates the burden placed on the content source to embed watermarks to each copy of the content that is distributed to clients.

Index

6,802,772

Systems and methods wherein at least one set of possible input parameters to a physics simulation will produce a successful game result

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided to conduct a game associated with a physics simulation, the physics simulation being adapted to generate a game result based on a set of input parameters. According to one embodiment, a game condition associated with a game to be played by a player is established. For example, a three-dimensional terrain associated with a golf putting green may be established. It is then determined that at least one set of possible input parameters to the physics simulation will produce a successful game result given the established game condition. For example, it may be determined that a player can use his or her mouse to provide a set of inputs parameters to the physics simulation such that a simulated golf ball will reach a simulated golf hole based on the three-dimensional golf putting green terrain.