Posts Tagged: "Apple"

Patents provide a competitive advantage, and those sophisticated in business know enough to look for and exploit whatever competitive advantage exists. Patents are the 800 pound gorilla of competitive advantage, but realize if you are going to want and need significant sums of money from investors rarely does a single invention or patent command attention. No one wants to invest significant funds into a company that has a one-and-done approach to innovation. You need to understand the road is long. Take a lesson from Apple, Inc. Innovate and then churn your innovation for all its worth, re-purposing the technology, expanding into products and services, constantly push the envelope and milk the golden goose for all its worth!

On March 2, 2010, Apple filed two lawsuits against High Tech Computer Corp. (aka HTC Corp.), HTC (B.V.I.) Corp, HTC America, Inc. and Exeda, Inc in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, and a concurrent ITC proceeding. Speculation has already started to rise, not surprisingly, that the real target of Apple is none other than Google, who is the creator of the Android operating system that seems to be the foundation of the allegedly infringing technologies. Given that Apple has sold over 40 million iPhones worldwide, if they do believe there is infringement they can hardly let Google muscle in on this lucrative technology turf.

Last week a patent application on an energy efficient device that provides enhanced copyright protections was published, not surprisingly with Apple, Inc. as the assignee. On Thursday, February 4, 2010, US Patent Application 20100030928 published, titled Media processing method and device. Certainly not the most sexy title possible, but the thrust of the invention is a device that allows the…

Apple, Inc., the tech giant that has revolutionized how we listen to music and the functionality of a cell phone, is now seeking to expand its extremely popular iPod and iPhone products into greener pastures. Specifically, in a US Patent Application No. 20100013309, which published earlier today, Apple is seeking a patent on a solar powered electronic device, such as an…

In news that has already spread across the Internet like a wildfire, Eastman Kodak Company has sued Apple, Inc., alleging that Apple infringes numerous Kodak patents associated with the iPhone, iPod Touch and various Mac computers. News reports also indicate that Kodak has sued Research in Motion (RIM), maker of the Blackberry. As yet I have not seen a copy…

The patent covers a method of using a telephony device, such as an iPhone, to remotely control various tasks associated with a controlled device, such as a personal computer. Essentially, the iPhone or next generation smart phone will allow a user to control navigation of user interfaces associated with applications or an operating system residing on the second device.

Apple is capitalizing on what would appear to some as Microsoft “crying wolf” syndrome and putting into question whether the new operating system can be trusted because its issues have not been effectively resolved by any of the previously released PC Operating Systems thus far. These ads are brilliant!

Apple was issued US Patent No. 7,608,775 earlier today relating to a method of changing time duration guiding a note along a beat ruler in a Graphical User Interface (GUI).  This patent application was filed on January 7, 2005, the same day that several other GarageBand patent applications were filed, including US Patent No. 7,603,623, relating to methods to automatically…

Earlier today a pending non-provisional utility patent application assigned to Apple Computer published. This application, US Patent Application 20090265214, is titled Advertisement in Operating System, and covers exactly what the title implies; namely an operating system that is capable of displaying a variety of advertisements to users. You are likely to have heard of the first listed inventor, Steven Jobs, the CEO and co-founder of Apple Computer, Inc.

Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 fourth quarter ended September 26, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross…

I am writing this post live from downtown Chicago at John Marshall Law School. I am in town this week for my bi-annual trip to the Windy City to teach the PLI Patent Bar Review Course. So far the weather here in Chicago is not what we typically experience for this time of year. It is warm and pleasant, although…

Steve Wozniak, known to many in the technology community as “The Woz” and heralded as the original brain behind Apple Computer, will be hitting the dance floor on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars with the highly anticipated two-hour season premiere, Monday, March 9, 2009 from 8:00-10:02 p.m. ET on ABC.  Wozniak will be joined in Season 8 of Dancing with…

Article One Partners announced earlier today that two winners will share the $50,000 prize for discovering prior art in Article One’s Garmin/SP Technologies Patent Study.  The Study related to a graphical interface providing a touch screen keyboard display that may not be minimized, maximized, closed or deleted. In a 2008 complaint filed in federal court in Chicago, SP Technologies, LLC…

The reason for what appears to be a strange assortment of collaborators is the fact that tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Apple and others are facing what they characterize as a huge patent troll problem, and this so-called patent troll problem comes disproportionately from business method patents and software patents. So it is easy to see why the banks and tech giants have formed an alliance to go after these types of patents that impact technology, communication and software.