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Wee bit of trouble: Nintendo can't trademark 'Wii Remote'
Oh, woe is Wii. Sure, Nintendo's latest console is printing money, but it has a little problem on – or, rather, in – its hands: the US Patent Office has suspended a request by the company to issue a trademark for the "Wii Remote."GamePolitics reports the application was put on hold due to the fact that "remote" is such a widely-used term, but the USPTO is willing to compromise. As long as the word "remote" is always preceeded by the word "Wii" (in all marketing, manuals, etc.) and Nintendo admits it holds no trademark on the word "remote," the government will reconsider. Why not just go with "Wiimote," something that we (not Wii) and, well, everyone else have been calling it from day one? GamePolitics points out that Nintendo did, in fact, try for that one – only to learn that a Florida company markets a TV remote for children under the name "Weemote." D'oh. Perhaps Nintendo could take this opportunity to re-brand the controller? Think of the possibilities: the "WaggleWand," the "GameBaton," the ... "Einhänder!" Oh, wait. Why don't you give it a shot? (And, as the Superintendent says, "Keep it clean!")
U.S. Patent Office suspends Nintendo 'Wii Remote' trademark
Nintendo recently filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which, as you might have guessed, has been shot down. Apparently, the word "remote" is far too common and incapable of being trademarked, said a letter sent to Nintendo from the USPTO last week. The attempt to trademark the term "Wii Remote" was filed back in March by Nintendo, and even though it has been put on hold, Nintendo still has the ability to trademark the term. It would merely require that Nintendo "disclaim" any ownership of the word "remote," except for when used with "Wii Remote."[Update: Removed uses of "patent" -- it's a trademark, duh.]
Minsky vs Linden Lab: The Vezina incident
One of the parties named in the Richard Minsky's trademark lawsuit is Victor Vezina, whom we haven't heard much about, and whose identity has been a bit mysterious. As it turns out, Victor Vezina is Victor Keegan, a technology writer for the Guardian. Keegan started up an art gallery in in Second Life called 'SLart' in early 2007, prior to the establishment of Minsky's trademark -- however, legally it matters less who is first and more who gets the blessing of the US Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO). Juris Amat, Minsky's legal representative wrote to Linden Lab on Minsky's behalf instructing them to notify Vezina to cease and desist from use of the SLART trademark in Second Life. Well, Linden Lab has now sort of complied. Sideways.
Apple applies for patent on head-tracking media display system
Apple has applied for a patent for an "automatically adjusting media display in a personal display system," a kind of head-tracking eyewear that gives the user "the impression of being in the theater." From the claims of the patent, the device looks not unlike a pair of goggles that display a cropped version of a larger media file. As the wearer moves his or her head, a gyroscope and accelerometer in the goggles adjust the crop of the media file, making it appear to the user as if they were in a theater-like experience. The patent also includes provisions for techniques to reduce eyestrain, determine when the user reaches the "edge" of the media file, and zoom in and out. The application was prepared in February, and its number is 20080276196. [Via Electronista.]
Minsky vs Linden Lab: USPTO won't cancel SLART trademark yet
Another step has been taken along the road for the dispute between Richard Minsky (registered owner of the SLART trademark), and Linden Lab (applicant for the SL trademark). The United States Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO) has dealt something of a blow to Linden Lab's background effort to convincing the USPTO that Minsky committed fraud in registering the SLART trademark and that the SLART trademark should be cancelled. In short, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) has suspended cancellation proceedings for now, so the Lab won't make any further progress on that front for the time being. Minsky asked the TTAB for the suspension of proceedings, and the Lab argued against it -- but the Lab's argument apparently didn't hold up on basic reasoning. We realize that the suspension of a cancellation proceeding generates a little confusion. Just bear with us, okay? One part is the cancellation process by which the USPTO determines if the SLART trademark should be cancelled. Whatever happens, there's no guarantee that it will be cancelled, even if the process resumes. The process itself has been suspended however, based on the TTAB agreeing with Minsky's reasoning that the cancellation process should not proceed at this time. Suspension. Cancellation Process. Got it? Right, on with the show ... Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Nintendo Zone trademarked in North America
Club Nintendo and its assorted freebies may not be the only service Nintendo of America intends to import from Japan. During its megaton-filled Media Summit last week, the big N briefly discussed "Nintendo Zone", a new service that will appear soon at "DS Station" download kiosks in Japanese stores and fast food restaurants.Nintendo Zone will be compatible with both the DS Lite (remember that?) and DSi, will offer demos and one-off content, and looks like it will make the trip to North America, after the above trademark was spotted in the USPTO database. While we're still short of an official confirmation, Siliconera notes that this was registered on October 2nd with Club Nintendo, Sin & Punishment, and Rhythm Heaven.[Via Siliconera]
Minsky vs Linden Lab: Restraining orders and petitions
The dispute between Richard Minsky (registered owner of the SLART trademark), and Linden Lab (applicant for the SL trademark) has been heating up. Minsky previously filed a civil suit in a federal court, naming Linden Lab, Philip Rosedale, Mitch Kapor and one or more other Second Life users (as John Does) for (variously) trademark infringement, trademark dilution, tortious interference, and fraud. Until such time as the judge decides whether a preliminary injunction should be granted, a temporary restraining order has been put in place -- most of the restraint being applied to Linden Lab. Meanwhile, Linden Lab has filed a petition of cancellation seeking to have the US Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO) cancel Minsky's ownership of the SLART trademark. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
The 'SL' trademark: All those opposed?
On a bit of a tangent to the battle between SLART's Richard Minsky and Linden Lab over the SLART trademark (which we will be getting back to, as there have been interesting developments there), we're going to take a few minutes to look at a rather interesting development surrounding the 'SL' trademark. As we wrote previously, the 'SL' trademark is not a registered trademark in the USA, and the registration process was started almost three months after Minsky commenced the process for his SLART trademark. Linden Lab's 'SL' trademark has now reached an interesting stage. It has been published for opposition. Let's look at what that means ... Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Sega tags USPTO with Jet Set Radio trademark
Sega has already enjoyed a measure of success with two ports from its wonderful Dreamcast line-up, and now Jet Set Radio will join the likes of Shenmue on the "rumored" pile. A "Jet Grind Radio" trademark was filed over at the USPTO last week by Sega, while Kotaku heard whisperings at the ongoing Comic-Con 2008 festival that the trademark referred to a new Wii game.Though we should emphasize the "whisperings" part of that last sentence, it's difficult not to get massively over-excited by the idea of a Jet Set Radio on Wii. The original game, now a breathtaking eight years old, exuded style and flair from every pore, with to-die-for cel-shaded visuals and a soundtrack that is played on the Wii Fanboy stereo to this day. We'd take a trip back to Shibuya-cho and Professor K any day of the week, and we'll do it with Wii MotionPlus compatibility, if you're reading this, Sega.[Via Game|Life]
Sampling more fashion disasters with Sigma Harmonics
Famitsu has another five shots of Square Enix's "what not to wear" trainer "adventure RPG" Sigma Harmonics, featuring the usual bonkers fashion choices and some decent-looking 3D sections. Naturally, since the likes of Final Fantasy III became a part of our lives, "decent-looking 3D sections" are the very least we expect from Square Enix, who seem to have mastered 3D on the DS better than most.Also, as we're on the subject of Sigma Harmonics, Siliconera reports that Square Enix just registered the game's title and logo at the USPTO. Does that mean the title is definitely coming stateside? Well, it's a very strong possibility -- let's leave it at that for now. More shots are past the break.
The next EverQuest 2 expansion is ...
The moon was so clear. It was alive with energy flowing through every part of it. Then it was as if something in the center broke loose and leaped outward, like a bird of prey hatching from an egg. I couldn't turn away. It was so beautiful. -- excerpt from The Shattering.Cyanbane posted a cryptic note on EQ2-Daily.com this morning. "EverQuest 2 - The Shadow of Odyssey? Those f'ing Everlings..." He'd done it. His USPTO-fu was strong. SOE had trademarked the names of their next expansions for their EverQuest franchise. EverQuest: Seeds of Destruction for the older game now entering its tenth year; and EverQuest II: The Shadow of Odyssey for its sequel.So what is the Shadow of Odyssey? There are so many unexplored plot threads in the Norrath of EQ2, and the title is so vague, that it could be almost anything. Still, we have a few good ideas. If we had to put money on it, we'd bet that the shadow in question has something to do with the Void, and the mysterious Shadowmen. Or, Odyssey could refer to the long-lost homeland of the Erudites, the magic-weaving spellsmiths of yore. And then there's the possibility everyone's been mulling ... the one obvious if you look into Norrath's night sky. What if that shadow is the one cast by the shattered moon? What if Shadow of Odyssey will send us back to Luclin? Click on through for a discussion of what "The Shadow of Odyssey" might suggest about the next expansion.
Crytek trademarks 'Crysis Warhead'
The good folks over at Trademork have noticed a March 3 USPTO posting by Crytek for "Crysis Warhead," which could either refer to a sequel to the best-selling PC game, one of those rumored console ports or a scary new experimental explosive (or possibly a long-overdue remake of an Amiga classic. Or a strange new candy. Or ...)The recent filing isn't Crytek's first hint at extension of the brand -- the company has also filed for trademark protection of "Crysis Wars" and "World in Crysis." Whatever the inevitable sequel/spin-off/port/expansion ends up being called, we just hope they cap the system requirements now. That way, we may actually have a computer that can actually run the game in its most beautiful detail when it eventually comes out.
Nokia's patent application shows 8 megapixel N-series slider?
Here's an odd one for you, a Nokia patent application just revealed those images above. The odd part is not so much the slider mechanism they are attempting to patent. Rather, it's the use of those dumbed-down product images instead of the purposely vague schematic usually submitted to the USPTO. And if we're not mistaken, that looks like "8 megapixel" stamped just below the lens. New N-Series in the oven, Nokia?[Via Unwired View]
Nokia illustrates dry patent with bizarre concept phone
Okay, straight up, this patent is pretty meaningless to us; it details some mumbo jumbo about loading a user interface onto a device via an expansion card (wireless is specifically mentioned, though it doesn't seem specific to that). That in itself is a little too boring to bother noting, at least until it materializes into a cool feature on a device we can actually purchase. What does catch one's eye, though, is the weird phone thingy Nokia uses to illustrate the patent. Seriously, what is this -- a Samsung UpStage embedded in the center of a L'Amour? Can this please never be produced, Nokia? Promise?[Via Gearfuse]
WotLK trademarked by Blizzard
And it looks like the final nail has been hammered in to support the "Wrath of the Lich King" speculation-- as MMO Champion points out, Blizzard Entertainment has registered "Wrath of the Lich King" as a trademark (you've got to do a search for it on the USPTO's website, as they don't allow links to searches), all but confirming that the next expansion will take us to Arthas' domain in Northrend.Now, just to play devil's advocate, there is still a chance that Blizzard did this as a smokescreen, and that the expansion has nothing to do with the Lich King. But the trademark was filed on July 28th, which by my estimation puts it a few days ahead of the speculation-- that's a pretty strong indication that while Blizzard waited until the last minute to do it (knowing BlizzCon was only a week or so away), they didn't wait long enough to keep us from leaking it out.The other note is that the patent trademark (note to self: don't piss off the lawyers!) covers not only computer games, but also "comic books," "trading cards," "coloring books," and "greeting cards," among a number of other types of items. I don't know if I ever saw any Burning Crusade greeting cards, but maybe Blizzard expects their little WoW empire to get even bigger in the future.So: Friday. BlizzCon. Wrath of the Lich King. Be there!Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Apple updates patent for touchscreen device
Remember that Apple patent that we eyed back in early September? You know, the one that patented the merging of various electronic devices into a single gadget? Well, it's back and better than ever before -- it's an update to U.S. patent application Serial No. 11/367,749, and is entitled "Multi-Functional Hand-Held Device." So how's this patent different from the last time? It's not, really, but it provides a fair bit more detail written in that cryptic legalistic prose that we've come to know and love; it describes and displays the new interface, which may include various triggers along the edge of the bezel: "By way of example, the visual guides 180 in FIG. 4 include 'Menu,' 'Power,' 'Left,' 'Select,' 'Right,' etc. It will be appreciated that the visual guides 180 and their arrangement depicted in FIG. 4 are only exemplary. More or fewer visual guides 180 may be provided, and the size of the visual guides 180 can be larger or smaller than the scale depicted in FIG. 4." Further, there's a new portrait and landscape option described, handy for viewing photos or watching episodes of "Lost" while on the bus. But even the music-playing core of the iPod will get a makeover, coming in with an on-screen time slider, volume control, and other options that seem to be user-defined and customizable. We've still got questions as we did last time concerning prior art, but perhaps these newer details fill in the gaps. All in all, it would appear that the true video iPod (with possible cell phone or GPS add-ons) is still on the drawing board at this point, and it remains to be seen how these illustrations translate into reality. We've got some more patent diagrams of that portrait/landscape view and of the new "now playing" interface on the flip side, hot off the patent filing presses.[Via MacNN]
Inventors claim to turn 300 microwaves into megawatt energy weapon
If you happen to have say, 300 microwaves kicking around between you and your friends, it turns out that you'd have a large part of the ingredients necessary for a pretty substantial weapon. That is, according to two New Mexican inventors, who recently filed a patent for a "high-power microwave system employing a phase-locked array of inexpensive commercial magnetrons." Translated into English that basically means that these guys claim you can combine the magnetrons (the bits that generate the actual microwave that cooks your popcorn) from a bunch of consumer-grade microwaves and tweak 'em a bit to develop a megawatt-level death ray, or in military/legal parlance, a "directed energy weapon system." Yeah, we've seen energy weapons (or tools, if you prefer) before, but this is probably one of the first times that we've seen ordinary kitchen technology more complicated than a knife turn into a seriously lethal weapon. [Via New Scientist]
Second Apple patent filing du jour
Just in case one Apple patent filing wasn't enough for you, another one has just hit the internets -- filed April 26, 2005, and published on the US Patent & Trademark Office's site today. As always, the patent lays out in explicit and excruciating detail what Apple has in the pipeline. This time, it's a "hand held electronic device with multiple touch sensing devices." Not clear enough for you? If you scroll down far enough, you'll find reference to the possibility of merging of many electronic devices into a single device: "Each device 102 includes both hardware and software components 104 and 106, which are integrated into multi-functional hand-held device 100. It should be pointed out that the multi-functional hand-held device 100 is not limited to only two devices, and may in fact integrate any number of devices." The patent filing goes on to say: "By way of example, the portable electronic device may correspond to tablet PCs, PDAs, media players (music, images, video), game players, telephones, cellular phones, mobile radios, cameras, GPS modules, remote controls, and/or the like." So, in short, it'll be something between anything and everything. Now, invoking the WANL ("we are not lawyers") clause here, we're really scratching our heads at this one -- because if our scant knowledge of patent law is correct, it would seem that prior art would apply. That is to say that surely there are millions of devices out there that have a touchscreen and have multiple functions. Surely one of these patent lawyers has a Treo or a BlackBerry, no? Assuming that those brainiac Apple attorneys know what they're doing, this patent potentially paves the way for an an even awesomer touchscreen-based iPhone than the rumors we've already heard about, or other devices that may or may not have something to do with products to be unveiled next week -- so until then, run along now.[Via CrunchGear and MacNN]
A new Apple Cube on the horizon?
Every Apple fan knows that his Steveness is into cubes, even more than Picasso was. The original NeXTcube (1988-1993) was, you guessed it, a cube -- as were the G4 Cube (2000-2001), and the new Apple cubealicious store in New York City (2006-?). Earlier this year we wrote about the possibility of the new Apple Media Cube, the ultimate Mac Mini meets truely awesome DVR/media center box which hasn't (yet) come to fruition. Well, here's another one to add to the flurry of rumors and speculations about what Stevie J. will unveil at next week's special event: a new Apple Cube? A US Patent filed today by our friends in Cupertino explains: "A cubical computer housing assembly comprises first and second ends and four sides, which define an interior compartment for housing the various computer components." Of course, we're still waiting on those thousands of embedded cameras in an LCD and an iPod dock in a PowerBook MacBook Pro. [Via Unwired View, thanks Staska]
TiVo awarded $90M and permanent injunction aginst EchoStar
Way back in April a jury agreed with TiVo that EchoStar willfully infringed upon TiVo's patent for a "multimedia time-warping system." Then crickets for the last 4 months as the two battled it out in both the court of public opinion and at a bench trial where TiVo requested a permanent injunction against the provider of the DISH Network. Well, the ruling is in and EchoStar must pay TiVo an initial award of about $90 million and must disable all infringing DVR functionality within, oh, 30 days -- we're talking switching off the DVR functionality of four million users. Ouch! Oh, and EchoStar can't sell new boxes, either. Is it just us or does little TiVo seem to be extra smiley this morning?[Thanks to everyone who sent this in, via Zatz Not Funny]Update: EchoStar is definitely going to attempt to stay the injunction (they'd be fools not to) -- more on that as it develops!Read - Reuters coverageRead - EchoStar's response
