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GEN-ERIC Patent News
Tuesday, June 8, 2004

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HEADLINES (patents issued a few hours ago..)
The Out There Patent of the Day goes to
Sony Corporation of Tokyo for an
Information processing apparatus and method for displaying weather data as a background for an electronic pet in a virtual space

The Way Out There Patent of the Day goes to
BR System Co., Ltd. of Korea for a
Method for measuring human body aura and system therefor
    Index
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NEWS
Case may pluck BlackBerries from U.S.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/176614_blackberries07.html
Is it really possible that Bill Gates, Pamela Anderson and phalanxes of stockbrokers, lawyers and congressional staff members will have to give up one of their most treasured possessions: their BlackBerries? Today in Washington, judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit are scheduled to ponder whether Research in Motion, the Canadian maker of the much-coveted BlackBerry hand-held wireless e-mail device, should be barred from business in the United States. At issue is who has the patent for the BlackBerry's technology.

In August, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District, in Richmond, Va., dealt RIM a stunning blow, ordering the company to pay NTP, which sued RIM for patent infringement, $53.7 million in damages and granting an injunction to prevent RIM from making, selling or servicing the devices in the United States. The injunction was stayed, pending RIM's appeal now before the Federal Circuit, the nation's highest patent court, which is supposed to hear arguments today. RIM is "engaging in 'bet your company' litigation," said Jim Wallace, a lawyer representing NTP. "What's at stake is the entire company. If you look at their annual reports, their core business is BlackBerries in the United States."
    Index
Google, Yahoo face off in suit
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/business/technology/8836209.htm
Google is the darling of the Internet and seemingly at the top of its game as it charges toward a public stock offering sometime this summer. But the Mountain View company could be paying hundreds of millions of dollars to its Sunnyvale archrival, Yahoo, if it loses a little-noticed patent lawsuit unfolding in a San Jose courtroom. The case pits Google against Overture Services, an Internet advertising company bought by Yahoo last year. Overture claims it patented an online bidding system for ads seven months before Google introduced a similar system. Patent attorneys who have reviewed the suit said Overture's patent claims can't be easily dismissed.
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Intermec Files RFID Patent Infringement Complaint Against Matrics
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040607005617&newsLang=en
Intermec IP Corp., a UNOVA Inc. (NYSE:UNA) company, today filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Matrics Inc. of Rockville, MD., relating to Intermec's RFID (radio frequency identification) patents. The complaint, filed in Federal District Court in Delaware, alleges Matrics' RFID products and systems infringe intellectual property owned by Intermec and asks for a reasonable royalty. Intermec offers a complete licensing program for companies that want to use Intermec intellectual property. "Intermec believes strongly in the need to balance two responsibilities," said Intermec President Tom Miller. "We are committed to making sure multiple suppliers have access to technology, and we provide that through our licensing program. We also must safeguard the rights of companies that invest in development of new technologies that lead to market advancement." Intermec, an RFID pioneer, acquired its RFID technology from IBM Research, through acquisition in 1997 of Amtech Corp. and through its own extensive investment in RFID research and development. Intermec's complaint alleges Matrics has infringed on a number of its patents, each of which is based on inventions made, filed, and issued or pending before Matrics was founded.
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PATENTS OF THE DAY

6,748,326

Information processing apparatus and method for displaying weather data as a background for an electronic pet in a virtual space

Abstract: An information processing apparatus and method as well as a program storage medium wherein the weather of a real space is reflected on the weather of a virtual space. A plurality of personal computers can communicate data with a weather server over a display section. The weather server provides the look of the sky imaged by a video camera as weather information. Each of the personal computers displays, for example, when it is operating with an application for an electronic pet, a weather of a virtual space in which an electronic pet lives based on the weather information provided from the weather server.

Index

6,746,397

Method for measuring human body aura and system therefor

Abstract: A method of measuring the aura of a human body is provided wherein the method comprises putting a system for measuring aura of a human body to an initial status by first selecting from a program a mode of operating said system, wherein the mode comprises a camera-using mode and a camera non-using mode. The system is capable of measuring physiological signals of a human body. According to the method, a timer function is selected on the system to use a timer through a program that delays the reading of the physiological signals of the person tested for about 5-10 seconds, two palms are contacted on aura sensing part for measuring physiological signals of a human body, the physiological signals of the human body are read from the sensors with the system, and the aura image of the physiological signals is displayed on a monitor.