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Amazon is one step closer to implementing its creepy, futuristic flesh-and-blood payment system. The e-tailing giant’s engineers on Thursday filed a patent application for a device that can scan a human hand — without ever touching it — as a way to ring up a store purchase. As The Post exclusively reported in September, the device is being developed by Amazon engineers under the code name “Orville” for a future rollout at the Amazon-owned Whole Foods supermarket chain. Employees at Amazon’s New York offices have been serving as guinea pigs for the biometric technology, using it at a handful of...

In an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, the ABA says: “Imposing governmental attorneys’ fees on patent applicants who choose civil actions under [the law] will hamper equal access to justice and chill the assertion of meritorious claims.” The Supreme Court is considering in Peter v. NantKwest Inc. whether the phrase “all the expenses of the proceedings” in a provision of U.S. patent law includes expenses incurred by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office when its attorneys defend the office in litigation

Much to the delight of its rival up north, the pretentious meter was pegged in the middle of August when Ohio State confirmed that it had filed the paperwork seeking a trademark on the word “The” as it pertains to items being marketed with the university’s name. Buckeye Nation, of course, takes great pride in letting everyone know that they are THE Ohio State University at nearly every turn, and the university is simply looking to protect that brand of self-identification. For now, though, that initial application made to the United States Patent & Trademark Office has been denied

Facebook has continually denied that it participates in the practice of shadow banning — a method of blocking a users’ posts or comments from everyone except the user who made the post or comment. But a newly granted patent shows that Facebook not only does practice shadow banning, but wants to protect — by patent — the method it uses for doing so. Despite the fact that Facebook executives denied the practice in congressional testimony in April, the company was awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) earlier this month for an automated system that would...

Imagine the following scenario: You spend your life slaving away at building some ingenious new device in your garage. After years of painstaking work, testing, and sleepless nights, you finally produce your device, patent it, and take it to market. However, before you can take it to market, someone serves you with a lawsuit.

“Hans Sauer of BIO said that it is easy to argue—after the heavy lifting of discovery and development has been done and a product has made it to market—that it should not be patented in the public interest. ‘As if innovative products fell from the sky and ought to go directly into the public domain…. It is right to encourage complaints about problems, but we must do so with an appreciation of the system’s longer-term benefits for society.’” Wednesday’s Senate hearing on patent eligibility reform, which began more than 30 minutes late due to votes on the floor, opened with...

“I’ve spent 22 years on the Federal Circuit and nine years since dealing with patent cases and I cannot predict [under the current law] in a given case whether eligibility will be found or not found. If I can’t do it, how can bankers, venture capitalists [and] business executives make reliable predictions and sensible decisions?” – Judge Paul Michel The first of three scheduled hearings in which the Senate IP Subcommittee will hear testimony from a total of 45 witnesses on the subject of patent eligibility law raised many questions. While some read the proposed draft bill released by Congress...

LG has been granted US patent 10,254,863, as noted by Let’s Go Digital, which sets out one potential vision for foldable phones — and it involves a mostly transparent display. Filed in 2015, this patent is just a hint at how long tech companies have been mulling foldables, as well as how weird and outlandish their concepts have been. The idea with this one is that you’d have one half of the device with an adjustable transparency, with the other half having some transparent portion and an opaque section to accommodate its battery. As usual with patents, the why of...

February 22, 2019 |   Salvatore Cezar Pais is a US Navy researcher. Salvatore has three amazing patents that would be incredible breakthroughs in physics if they are true. The least extreme is a patent for Piezoelectricity-Induced Room Temperature Superconductor. The other two patents are gravity wave generator and inertial mass reduction.If these could be realized as technologies then we are talking Star Trek level spaceships. The gravitational wave generator could be used for propellentless propulsion to near the speed of light. Being able to reduce inertia would also mean capabilities which currently seem beyond known physics.The more likely situation...

The long-term vision is that 5G will lead to the invention of thousands of new products, technologies and services, increase productivity and allow for new industries to emerge. A global 5G network would unify mobile communication and connect individuals or devices to everything through the Internet of Things (IoT). 5G technology can connect vehicles, ships, buildings, meters, machines and other items with electronics, software, sensors and the Cloud, while embedded 5G technology would allow machines to exchange information and integrate computer-based systems in the physical world. In recent years 3G and 4G patent owners have controlled the way in which...

A patent from Facebook came to light earlier this week, depicting technology that Facebook would use to quietly activate a user’s microphone in order to listen to them as they watch ads. The patent, filed earlier this month, was originally discovered by Metro. It describes a process by which secret messages embedded in TV ads, inaudible to the human ear, would trigger your smart device to record you while the ad was playing. It would then send the audio to Facebook, in order for it to hear your reaction to the ad. You can view the patent here, complete with stick-figure...

U.S. Supreme Court limits where patent-infringement cases can be filed; decision could limit venue-shopping “The Supreme Court on Monday limited the ability of patent holders to bring infringement lawsuits in courts that have plaintiff friendly reputations, a notable decision that could provide a boost to companies that defend against patent claims,” Brent Kendall reports for The Wall Street Journal. “The high court, in an opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas, ruled unanimously that a lower court has been following an incorrect legal standard for almost 30 years that made it possible for patent holders to sue companies in almost any U.S....

Donald J. Trump told the American people during his presidential campaign, “This country is being drained of its jobs and its money because we have stupid people making bad deals.” He promised to make better deals, ones in which we would win so much we “may even get tired of winning.” Now his administration, through the Army, is on the brink of making a bad deal, giving a French pharmaceutical company, Sanofi, the exclusive license to patents and thus a monopoly to sell a vaccine against the Zika virus. If Mr. Trump allows this deal, Sanofi will be able to...

Back in March, the Supreme Court stated that it would hear Samsung’s appeal in the company’s never-ending design patent battle with Apple. While Apple had urged the Supreme Court not to hear the case, saying that Samsung “had its day in court,” it was revealed on the court’s website today that the case will be heard on October 11th. The Supreme Court had initially announced its decision to hear the case in March, but a date was unknown until tonight. The hearing will center around two patents that Apple has claimed Samsung infringed upon. The long-winded battle seemingly came to an...

Apple Faces Patent Lawsuit Over iPhone's Battery Technologies Tuesday July 12, 2016 12:04 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol Somaltus, LLC has filed a complaint against Apple today in an Eastern Texas district court, accusing the iPhone maker of infringing upon its 2010 patent related to complex battery technologies. The small Frisco, Texas-based firm also filed lawsuits against Asus, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba over the same patent. The lawsuit claims that the iPhone 6s and any similar devices sold by Apple infringe upon U.S. Patent No. 7,657,386, titled "Integrated Battery Service System," and seeks unspecified monetary damages or, alternatively, a...

Once a haven for innovation, over the last two decades the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been rocked by the velocity of technological change and roiled by "patent trolls." Could it be that the biggest impediment that innovators now face is the very system that was created to protect them? Starting in the early 2000s, the rights and protections conferred by a U.S. patent have eroded to the point that they are weaker today than at any time since the Great Depression. A series of Supreme Court decisions and then the most important patent-reform legislation in sixty years, signed...

The Associated Press — The Supreme Court has agreed to referee a pricy patent dispute between Samsung and Apple. The justices said Monday they will review a $399 million judgment against South Korea-based Samsung for illegally copying patented aspects of the look of Apple's iPhone. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, and Samsung are the top two manufacturers of increasingly ubiquitous smartphones. The two companies have been embroiled in patent fights for years. The justices will decide whether a court can order Samsung to pay Apple every penny it made from the phones at issue, even though the disputed features are...

The process of approving patent applications, the statutes, policies and statutes governing patents have all undergone a tremendous change in the past two decades. Despite the constant refrain from those technology companies in the new economy, the system must continue to work for not simply for them but those established industries who have used and continue to use the patent system. Congress has been steadily and carefully addressing necessary changes to the Patent Act. And again, despite the constant cry for change from certain companies, it important to note that the process of amending the Patent Act remains a necessarily...

A Nevada based company is suing Apple for patent infringement. The company alleges that Apple's 2-step Apple ID verification system/process violates their patent. Verify Smart Corp. alleges that Apple makes, uses, tests, markets and sells or otherwise provides a system and method for enabling a user to authenticate their identity when initiating an electronic transaction, using a one-time pass-code sent to the user's mobile phone (hereinafter "Apple two-step verification"). They further claim that Apple's two-step verification system is designed to enable secure transactions for their customers. Verify alleges, that Apple's two-step verification infringes claims 2 and 5 of their...

Boeing has received a US patent for a laser-powered fusion-fission jet propulsion system.The patent, US 9,068,562, combines inertial confinement fusion, fission, and a turbine that generates electricity.Boeing claims that there is a silhouette of a turbo fan engine and in the middle of the engine there is a fusion chamber, with a number of very strong lasers focused on a single point. A hohlraum (pellet) containing a mix of deuterium and tritium (hydrogen isotopes) is placed at this focal point. The lasers are all turned on at the same instant, creating massive pressure on the pellet, which implodes and causes...