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Amazon has the tech to thwart comparison shoppers in its stores
Amazon's low prices, exclusive discounts and quick delivery have lured customers away from traditional brick and mortar stores for years, but their reach has been mostly limited to the online sphere. Until now, that is. Amazon has just been granted a patent to control what you see (and what you don't) on your phone when you're inside one of their physical stores.
Andy Rubin's Essential is toying with the idea of smart glasses
Now that Andy Rubin's technology startup Essential has emerged from stealth, there's a healthy amount of interest around what the company plans to do to stand out. We've already had our first look at the Essential Phone and smart Home assistant, but a recent patent filing also hints that the Android co-founder and his team could launch smart glasses that look a lot like Snapchat's Spectacles.
Amazon's drone deliveries could include shipping label parachutes
It's hard to believe it's been almost three years since Amazon announced its plan to deliver packages via drone. The first air delivery occurred last December in the UK and the retailer continues to refine the concept with futuristic ideas to perch the flying couriers on streetlights and deploy them from flying warehouses. In a new patent discovered by GeekWire, Amazon's next step is an "Aerial Package Delivery System," a delivery label that includes one of those parachutes that could make shipping via an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that much easier.
Supreme Court decision lifts ownership rights over patent law
In a win for anyone who has ever been frustrated by overpriced ink, the Supreme Court ruled today (PDF) that printer maker Lexmark can't sue companies that refill old cartridges and sell them at a discount. More specifically, the court ruled that Lexmark gave away its patent rights to the cartridges (and their single-use microchips) as soon as it started selling them. While the case may seem narrowly focused, digital rights groups are hailing it as a win for consumers in general and a decision that could affect everyone's right to repair their own devices.
Nokia and Apple end their patent fight and become health allies
Over recent months, Apple has been embroiled lawsuits related to patent licensing. While its fight with Qualcomm continues to rumble on, the company confirmed today that it's resolved one of its major disputes by signing a multi-year agreement with Nokia to utilize its intellectual property.
Supreme Court shuts down location loophole for patent suits
Patent trolls have had it pretty easy lately, especially in East Texas. A 2016 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit allowed patent suits anywhere a defendant company's products are sold. The Eastern District of Texas has become a favorite of high-tech patent lawsuits thanks to its rapid litigation timetable and plaintiff-friendly rulings. The US Supreme court today may have put an end to such free-range suit practices, however. The justices involved in the patent case between TC Heartland and Kraft Foods ruled unanimously that patent suits can only be filed in courts located where the target company is headquartered.
Intel and Samsung back FTC lawsuit against Qualcomm
The Federal Trade Commission kicked off 2017 by targeting Qualcomm over allegedly anti-competitive behavior, and unsurprisingly, companies the chipmaker competes with agree. Intel and Samsung filed briefs supporting the FTC lawsuit, claiming that Qualcomm uses its dominant position in the mobile processor industry to squeeze others out.
Qualcomm might try to block iPhone shipments over royalty dispute
The Qualcomm vs. Apple licensing squabble had already gotten messy with lawsuits flying in both directions, but a report by Bloomberg says things could go to the next level soon. That's because according to sources, Qualcomm plans to ask the ITC to block Apple from importing its phones from where they're built in Asia to the US, ahead of new devices that we're anticipating in the fall. We don't know if it could be successful, although Qualcomm holds a number of patents in the space and Apple stopped making payments while the dispute is ongoing.
Apple and Qualcomm's license dispute is getting nasty
Qualcomm's ongoing legal dispute with Apple today took a new turn after the chipmaker accused its device-making partner of further withholding patent royalties. According to a statement, Apple recently stopped paying licensing revenue to manufacturers of the iPhone because it believes it's been overpaying for important 3G and 4G patents.
Snap buys key patent to secure the future of its geofilters
Mobli, an Israeli company, patented the idea of adding filters to photos based on your location back in 2012, way before Snap started using them. Now TechCrunch says the ephemeral messaging app has purchased that patent for $7.7 million in order to make sure it won't ever have an issue offering geofilters to its users. They're some of its most popular offerings, after all, and were apparently responsible for $360 million of the $400 million revenue it posted last year. We're guessing $7.7 million was a small investment to make to secure the future of the company.
Apple could make a MagSafe to USB-C adapter if it wanted to
Dongles are a sad part of life for new MacBook Pro owners: The 2016 laptops infamously replaced all of its ports with USB-C, except for the headphone jack. So, it's going to take a lot of adapters to make your existing peripherals compatible with your new machine. This means the MagSafe breakaway charging cable has been phased out, but Apple may be working on a solution to keep it alive. As The Verge notes, the company filed a patent for a MagSafe to USB-C adapter last year, and it was just published a few days ago.
Google hopes license sharing will stop Android patent trolls
With over 4,000 different devices released in the last year alone, the Android ecosystem is massive. That kind of scale can lead to a lot of copyright confusion and patent squabbling on the platform, which Google would probably like to avoid in the future. So, to save everyone the licensing headaches and unnecessary lawsuits, Google has just announced PAX -- a short acronym for the long-winded "Android Networked Cross-License Agreement."
China says Apple isn't cloning a local phone maker
Did it seem ridiculous to you that Beijing officials ordered a ban on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus over a dubious design patent claim? You're not the only one. A court has reversed the ban (which was suspended during a dispute process) and declared that Apple isn't violating the patents of Shenzhen Baili Marketing Services, which insisted that the iPhone 6 riffed on the look of its 100c smartphone. Regulators issued the ban without real proof of wrongdoing, according to the ruling, and the iPhone has traits that "completely change the effect" of its design versus its (frankly very generic-looking) rival. Customers haven't had a problem telling the difference between the iPhone and 100c, the court says.
Apple won't have to pay $533 million to an iTunes patent troll
It's taken two years, but Apple has finally reversed a patent ruling that required it to pay $533 million in damages to a little-known technology developer. On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit threw out a jury verdict that had judged Apple to have violated intellectual property owned by Smartflash -- specifically its copy protection, payment systems and storage patents -- with its iTunes software.
IBM somehow got a patent for an Out-Of-Office email system
A month and a half ago, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted IBM Patent 9,547,842, which is an email system designed to automatically send messages informing inquiring bodies that said person is absent from their physical place of work... It's an Out Of Office email system. They patented OOO.
Sony files patent for Vive-style PSVR tracking device
Sony is experimenting with its own Vive-style VR tracking device, according to a patent filing from June. The document hints at a tracker working similarly to HTC's current virtual reality tech. Functioning as an external projector, the device would use lights and mirrors to map the player's real world movements straight into PSVR. While Sony's VR offering currently uses a camera to detect light from the player's headset, the existing tracking limits users to an incredibly small space. With light often interfering with the PS4's camera, if this new tech makes it to production it could not only give gamers more mobility but also potentially provide a more accurate and immersive PSVR experience.
Amazon patent reveals its drone-deploying flying warehouse plan
Amazon's drone-delivery plans apparently don't stop with using flying contraptions to ferry people's purchases to their homes. Based on a patent it filed with the USPTO, the e-commerce giant dreams of launching big floating warehouses near crowded areas and happenings like sporting events. The company calls the blimp-like structures "airborne fulfillment centers," because that's precisely what they are. Amazon envisions deploying drones carrying memorabilia or food from these floating warehouses, which will have billboards for advertising, to people attending music festivals or championships.
Nokia sues Apple over a slew of patent infringements
Nokia announced today that it has sued Apple for patent infringement in Germany and the US. According to the suit, Apple did agree to license a few Nokia patents in 2011, but has declined offers since then. "Through our sustained investment in research and development, Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products," said Ilkka Rahnasto, Nokia's head of Patent Business, in a statement. The suit was filed in Regional Courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich in Germany and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. A total of 32 patents are involved and cover a range of technologies that include everything from the display and user interface to chipsets and video encoding. Apple is no stranger to patent infringement lawsuits. It paid $24.9 million in a Siri patent lawsuit earlier this year and $625 million in a Facetime patent lawsuit as well. Of course, it's had the occasional victory too, like when it sued Samsung for patent infringements and won.
Nintendo Switch patent filing hints at potential for VR
Nintendo might have some big surprises in store when it sheds more light on the Switch game console in January. NeoGAF forum member Rösti has noticed a slew of just-published patent applications for the hybrid system, and one of them hints that the Switch might have virtual reality support. Effectively, it would turn the Switch into a larger-than-usual Daydream View or Gear VR -- you'd slot it into a headset and use the console's detachable controllers to play. Suddenly, Nintendo's misgivings over VR seem like temporary roadblocks.
Facebook patent hints at an automated solution for fake news
Facebook may have said that it's stepping up its fight against fake news in the past few weeks, but there are signs that it might have had a way to tackle this problem sooner. A recently published USPTO filing from 2015 reveals that Facebook has applied for a patent on technology that would automate the process of removing "objectionable content." It's ostensibly for eliminating hate speech, porn and other material that Facebook has objected to for years, but the system could easily be applied to bogus stories as well.
