United States Patent and Trademark Office
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National Inventors Hall of Fame honors creators of Unix, power drills and more
The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) joined Engadget on stage today at CES to announce its 2019 class of inductees. While the official induction ceremony won't actually happen until May 2nd at the National Building Museum in DC, we can tell you that 19 separate innovators representing 12 different inventions will be honored. The group ranges from relatively obscure creators of a programming language used by engineers and scientists, to house hold names like S. Duncan Black and Alonzo G. Decker -- or Black & Decker -- the inventors of the first portable handheld drill. The festivities will be hosted by Danica McKellar, best known as Winnie Cooper from the Wonder Years, but also an accomplished academic and mathematician.
Apple files anti-theft patent that uses accelerometers to detect theft-like movement
What kind of movement does a theft entail? Apple's in the process of figuring that out, today filing a patent application for a, "acceleration-based theft detection system for portable electronic devices." Apple pickers: you've just been put on watch. According to the patent filing, said device would activate an alarm of some form after determining, "whether a theft condition is present." It'll apparently figure that out based on the accelerometer built into many of Apple's mobile devices -- the same thing that figures out which way you're holding your phone. Beyond just the hardware, said theft protection system would work in concert with software to determine if the movement matches a pre-determined "profile characteristic of theft." Of course, Apple's not the only one worried about mobile device theft, as Google already patented just such a device pertaining to its Project Glass concept. But the you'd have to be pretty brazen to steal the glasses off of someone's face without "accidentally" socking them in the eye.
Bethesda trademarks 'Hearthfire,' which is totally a thing from Skryim
Update: Please excuse us, but we've written about this before. Like, back in May. Sorry about that, y'all! Nothing to see here! Move right along!When Skyrim's "Dawnguard" DLC was first outed by a trademark filing back in March, we knew little aside from the name – references to the Dawnguard could be found in Skyrim, but only vague ones. It wasn't even clear that the filing was for DLC at the time – nor is it clear today that a recently unearthed trademark filing by Bethesda parent company Zenimax Media for "Hearthfire" is Skyrim's next DLC.But it sure smells like it. The term "Hearthfire" (or "Heartfire") correlates to the ninth month in The Elder Scrolls' world of Tamriel, as well as a set of books in the 2920 series. Bethesda is staying mum for now, telling VentureBeat that the studio, "does not comment on trademark filings." The filing was made back in May, so it's always possible that the idea has since passed.The filing is definitely game software, per the description: "Computer game software for use with computers and video game consoles; downloadable computer game software offered via the internet and wireless devices." There's also a wholly unremarkable image alongside the trademark filing, seen above.
Apple granted patent for accelerometer-aided theft-detection system
Despite the added risk brought on by Apple's Find My iPhone feature, the iOS handset remains a frequent target for smartphone thieves, thanks to the device's resale value and compatibility with networks around the world. There's not much you can do to deter sticky fingers short of keeping your iPhone or MacBook in view at all times, but the issue does appear to have crossed the desks of Apple's design team, which was just granted patent number 8,217,792 for a sophisticated anti-theft scheme. The acceleration-based system would detect a "known theft condition" based on acceleration characteristics, sounding an alarm and disabling the device. The smartphone or laptop would ignore vibrations from passing cars or those caused by items being dropped onto a nearby surface, instead focusing on undisclosed scenarios that likely involve direct movement. The device owner would use a GUI to configure and disable the system, at which point the handset or computer would return to its pre-disturbed mode. Overall, it sounds like a fairly straightforward hardware/software solution, with the added benefit of a technique to filter out regular motion in an attempt to reduce the number of false alarms. You'll find the full patent at the source link below.
Google patents view augmentation method and glasses, sees what you cannot
Google continues to keep our friends down at the US Patents and Trademark Office busy with its latest filing, involving augmented reality and a pair of relatively staid (at least by these sketches) pair of glasses. The patent outlines a system where a view-finder could identify what we're gawking at, adding in extra factual details and also outlining new points of interest -- including those that aren't necessarily within the view of our own eyes. The glasses would then be able to notify us with a medley of visual indicators and cues (including the slightly awkward notion of light-up frames), guiding our gaze to something we'd hopefully want to take a look at. There's more to Google's latest idea than simple tourist-centric finger-pointing though, also looking to augment how we read. The device would detect when someone is reading from a digital display and even feel out the rest of the information currently out of view. It would then direct readers to points of interest; possibly pictures, possibly those important factual nuggets -- the patent still plays loose with the specifics. But if you're into such vague and fanciful product description, you can take a look at the full filing at the source below.
Blizzard taking Valve to court over 'DOTA' trademark
Which giant company has the rights to the fan-created, community-promoted word "Dota?" That's up to the courts now. Blizzard has filed a Notice of Opposition with the US Patent and Trademark Office, seeking to block Valve's registration of the word. The word has been used exclusively in reference to a (mod of a) Blizzard game, the document explains. "By virtue of that use, the DOTA mark has become firmly associated in the mind of consumers with Blizzard, including to signify a highly popular scenario or variant of one of Blizzard's best-selling computer games, Warcraft III."Valve, the document goes on to claim, hasn't used the word for anything yet. There's also a lot of history of Warcraft III, which is a really strange thing to read in a legal document. The case is in discovery now, with pretrial procedures taking place throughout this year and into next. We hope this court proceeding doesn't delay either of the games, as those companies are quite capable of delaying their games on their own.
Apple patents workflow sharing using NFC, because it's never too late
Two things that are guaranteed to mess with your brain: playing the oboe and reading dense Apple patent applications. You do find the occasional gem, but often you'll read scores of pages only to discover that the so-called invention has already been put to use by others. In this instance, Apple has successfully patented the idea of using NFC to establish a master/slave relationship between two smartphones, as a prelude to making a fully-fledged WiFi connection that allows the sharing of contact details or more complicated sequences of actions. Now, this is a smart idea, especially since the patent specifically talks about retail applications (shown above), but is the end result so wildly different to Android Beam or even Bump? Even Fujitsu came up with a similar concept for using NFC to trigger location-relevant workflows. Either there's some significant overlap here, or we've spent too long playing reed instruments.
