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SparkFun Celebrates an Open Source Approach to Innovation

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January 25, 2013

SparkFun does business by its own rules. The electronics supplier designs dozens of new products a year and never patents any of them. And while most of what the company actually sells is sourced from other suppliers, “where the company has made its name is in a stable of its own custom parts and kits, the designs for which it gives away for free,” explains Wired. Continue reading SparkFun Celebrates an Open Source Approach to Innovation

Year in Review: Top Tech Policy Stories of 2012

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January 1, 2013

From Kim Dotcom and the rise of patent troll lawsuits to Apple v. Samsung and the public outcry against SOPA/PIPA, 2012 was a dramatic year in terms of copyright law, tech-related legislation and Internet policy. Response to the SOPA/PIPA bills in January helped set the tone as the debate in Washington raged, and consumers and companies took to the Internet in protest. At one point, politicians were flooded with a record eight million e-mails from regular Internet users in just a few days. So what were the top tech policy stories for 2012 — and how will they impact us moving forward? Continue reading Year in Review: Top Tech Policy Stories of 2012

Kodak Sells 1,100 Digital Camera Patents to Group of Tech Giants

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December 20, 2012

Eastman Kodak announced on Wednesday that a group of leading tech firms has teamed together to acquire 1,100 digital imaging and processing patents from the company for $525 million. “Once a thriving camera and photo company, Kodak filed for Chapter 11 in early 2012, hoping to restructure,” reports Wired. “Intellectual property aggregators Intellectual Ventures and RPX organized a consortium of 12 tech companies — Adobe, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Fujifilm, Google, HTC, Huawei, Microsoft, RIM, Samsung and Shutterfly — to make the purchase.” Continue reading Kodak Sells 1,100 Digital Camera Patents to Group of Tech Giants

The State of Worldwide Intellectual Property: Innovation on the Rise

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December 13, 2012
  • Innovation is on the rise all across the globe, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization.
  • The IP division of the United Nations released a report full of statistics that show IP trends around the world. It found, among other things, that China’s patent office has surpassed the U.S. as the largest, and 2011 set the record for the highest number of patent applications filed worldwide.
  • “Sustained growth in IP filings indicates that companies continue to innovate despite weak economic conditions,” WIPO Director General Francis Gurry stated at a press conference. “This is good news, as it lays the foundation for the world economy to generate growth and prosperity in the future.”
  • The Atlantic highlights numerous interesting findings including:
  • The total number of patent applications filed worldwide in 2011 was 2.14 million, while the estimated number of patents granted reached nearly 1 million. The increase in the total number of patent filings worldwide between 2009 and 2011 was 293,900.
  • China’s patent office received 526,412 applications in 2011, marking a 34.6 percent growth in patent filings.
  • The total number of applications received by the U.S. patent office in 2011 was 503,582 (with 224,505 patents granted). This represents a 9.7 percent growth for the U.S.

New Exhibit at U.S. Patent Office Museum Pays Tribute to Steve Jobs

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November 28, 2011
  • An exhibit paying tribute to Steve Jobs recently opened in the atrium of the U.S. Patent Office Museum in Alexandria, Virginia.
  • The exhibit is open to the public, free of charge, and will run through January 15.
  • It includes a row of 30 giant iPhone panels, designed by non-profit group Invent Now, which display information about more than 300 patents credited to Jobs as co-inventor.
  • “This exhibit commemorates the far-reaching impact of Steve Jobs’ entrepreneurship and innovation on our daily lives,” said the Under Secretary of Commerce for IP, David Kappos. “His patents and trademarks provide a striking example of the importance intellectual property plays in the global marketplace.”
  • Additional photos are available at GeekWire.

Apple Patents Hint at 3D Gesture Control for iPad and Projected Images

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October 28, 2011
  • A newly uncovered Apple patent suggests 3D gesture control may be in the works for the company’s mobile devices.
  • “Forget relying solely on touch to control your Apple device,” writes Wired. “On future iPads, you may be able to control your tablet from across the room using 3D gestures, such as a swirl or swipe of the hand.”
  • Employing a front-facing camera, it may be possible to use 3D gestures to control graphical elements such as icons, media files, text and images on an iPad or iPhone. A toolbar would teach beginners pre-set options as well as allow users to customize their own gestures.
  • Another Apple patent indicates the company is working on an integrated projector for iDevices that would incorporate gesture controls for manipulating projected images.

Google Patent Portfolio Too Thin to Protect Against Competitors?

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October 11, 2011
  • Google has a relatively small patent collection, with most of its patents related to fundamental search algorithms and technologies.
  • Looking to expand into the mobile sphere, Google purchased Motorola’s cellphone business and by extension its patent portfolio to “better protect Android from anticompetitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies,” Google CEO Larry Page said.
  • However, IPVision, a patent-analyzing software company, says, “the 1,029 patents that Google bought from IBM in July contain little that the company could use to either attack its competitors or defend its own products.”
  • Google will most likely need to expand its patents into mobile software. “It’s common knowledge that Google is patent poor,” says Hoo-Min Toong, co-founder of IPVision. “Not only does it need to gain patents in their own product areas, but also in defending themselves against other claims.”

Report: Is Innovation being Stifled by Frivolous Lawsuits of Patent Trolls?

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September 21, 2011
  • Looking at a database of over 1,600 patent troll lawsuits compiled by Patent Freedom, a team of Boston University researchers estimate that these suits have cost companies some $500 billion since 1990. These costs include not only legal fees and payouts to plaintiffs, but indirect costs such as employee distraction, legal uncertainty, and the need to redesign or drop key products.
  • The authors of the study also estimate that the original inventors received less than 10 percent of the “defendant’s lost wealth.”
  • Additionally, they found that software patents accounted for approximately 62 percent of the lawsuits (while a mere two percent of suits were related to drug or chemical patents, and only six percent involved mechanical patents).
  • The article concludes that the patent system is becoming a disincentive to innovation. “These results are important because the patent system is supposed to reward companies who invest in innovation,” suggests Ars Technica. “Yet thanks to the growing blizzard of frivolous patent lawsuits against technology companies, the patent system is actually becoming a net disincentive to innovation, especially software. We hope Congress and the Supreme Court are paying attention.”

Tech Trends: Will the Patent War go Nuclear?

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August 22, 2011
  • Tech companies are spending from $400K -$750K per patent. This is money companies are not spending on innovation or jobs.
  • Writing for InfoWorld, Bill Snyder makes the analogy to problems with the high costs of healthcare due to money spent defending against medical malpractice. He points out that while the “patent arms race goes nuclear,” not only will new tech jobs not be created, but existing jobs will be lost.
  • “Think what Google could do with $6 billion, writes Snyder. “Think of the research that would spawn new products, advance innovation, and create who knows how many thousands of good jobs up and down the technology food chain. Instead, that money is going to buy patents.”
  • Snyder indicates more patent buyouts are on the way. “Everyone knows what an arms race is. One side builds a new weapon, and the other side has to match it. Then the first side builds an even more powerful weapon, prompting the other guy to build more and so on. Remember how well that worked out for the Soviet Union?”

Where Would We Be Today if the World Wide Web had Been Patented?

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August 15, 2011
  • August 6 marked the 20th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee publishing the first website at CERN. Techdirt provides a few guesses regarding where we might stand today had Berners-Lee sought and received a patent for the World Wide Web.
  • The article suggests that innovation would be dramatically limited and rather than an open World Wide Web, we would be using proprietary, walled gardens such as AOL, Compuserve and Prodigy. The idea of open Internet development would be hampered by lawsuits.
  • Search functionality would most likely be dismal (no Google, for example), and limited to proprietary systems. We may also not have seen the meteoric rise of smartphones without the Web.
  • And try to imagine this: “Most people’s use of online services would be more about ‘consumption’ than ‘communication.’ There would still be chat rooms and such, but there wouldn’t be massive public communication developments like blogs and Twitter. There might be some social networking elements, but they would be very rudimentary within the walled garden.”
  • What are your thoughts? If Berners-Lee had not been so generous, would innovation be stalled in patent hell? Or would we have moved forward with other systems in development at the time?

iOS Developers Unite Against Lodsys and Patent Trolls

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August 2, 2011
  • Renowned iOS developer Mike Lee announced on Monday a new venture called Appsterdam Legal Defense Team that will band together the small developers to fight against patent trolls.
  • Ars Technica reports: “The goal, aside from the obvious one of being free from frivolous patent lawsuits, is to become ‘the ants of East Texas, minding their business until someone invades their anthill.'”
  • Apple has licensed patents from Lodsys, which it says covers third party developers — but the infringement claims against iOS developers are continuing.
  • The result is uncertainty that could imperil these smaller developers and the developer community generally, not only for Apple but for Android and other platforms.
  • “This is bigger than just Apple platforms,” explains Lee. “Apple has the luxury and history of moving very slowly — they accepted a 60 day discovery, for example. Dozens of app makers could be destroyed by then. There is also good chance Apple can’t actually sue Lodsys, since Apple is under contract by Intellectual Ventures and IV probably snuck indemnity in there.”
  • “We’re going after Lodsys for sure, but understand the ultimate target is Intellectual Ventures,” Lee added. “They are the Mordor to these trolls.”

Samsung Patent Adds Depth-of-Field to Point-and-Clicks

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July 20, 2011
  • Samsung’s recent patent application illustrates how it is possible to add shallow depth-of-field to a point-and-shoot or smartphone camera.
  • The approach makes use of a dual-lens setup (similar to what we’ve seen with 3D cameras lately), where one lens captures full resolution of the target image while the other calculates and records relative distances.
  • The camera then merges the data with the primary image in order to create a depth map. A graduated blur is applied, based on this depth map, adding simulated depth-of-field.
  • The concept is not found in any product; however, Engadget is optimistic: “No word on whether this neat trick will make its way to consumers’ hands — but with 3D still the reigning buzz, we’d upgrade that possibility to a very likely.”
  • The Photography Bay post includes a link to the patent application.

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