Hasta La Gadget!

If it never occurred to you to plug all kinds of peripherals into your ear cans — including the media player making the sound — a new patent from Redmond’s brain trust might give you pause. The headphones are shown as a catch-all, with receiving spaces for snapping in devices like rechargeable battery packs, storage, Bluetooth or WiFi reception modules and media players — such as the Zune-like one sketched in above. The headset could also have controls to operate those peripherals, as well as an optional boom mic and USB ports, according to the document. All this is claimed to allow for numerous configurations, letting you pimp your headset to fit your own needs, and interface with games, movies or music in various ways. If they ever get to market, you might start thinking of humble headphones as full-blown entertainment centers instead of mere accessories.

Microsoft patent imagines headphones as accessory docking motherships originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 18:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a long road for Kodak to get to this point, but it seems the floundering company has finally won approval to sell off its digital imaging patents. Over the objections of Apple and Flashpoint (nothing like kicking a company when its down), the Bankruptcy Court awarded Kodak the right to auction off its Digital Capture and Kodak Imaging Systems and Services (KISS) patent portfolios. While the challenges haven’t been completely dismissed, the ruling provides an opportunity for the struggling Rochester firm to move ahead with its auction plans in the face of what it calls “baseless claims.” Soon enough the bids for the rather sizable and valuable portfolios will start rolling in, and should provide Kodak with enough cash to keep its head above water for a little bit longer. For more detail, check out the PR after the break.

[Image Credit: MercerFilm]

Continue reading Kodak gets the green light to sell digital imaging patents

Kodak gets the green light to sell digital imaging patents originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 12:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It wasn’t that long ago that Apple scored an injunction against the HTC One X and the EVO 4G LTE in the United States. The handsets were eventually let into the country once HTC proved the phones were no longer infringing Apple’s patent. Cupertino cried foul, saying that HTC continued to infringe the menu related patent on 29 devices. The company called on the ITC to issue an emergency ban, a request which has now been denied.

Apple suggested last month that HTC misled customs officials over the software on phones to get past the ban, although the ITC doesn’t share the same thoughts: “The commission finds that Apple has not demonstrated the propriety of temporary emergency action here. The commission will not direct Customs to detail all subject HTC products because the commission does not have the information necessary to determine whether the respondents are currently violating the commission’s limited exclusion order.”

It was previously reported that the version of Android HTC has included on phones such as the One X and EVO 4G LTE have been modified to remove the infringing patent. The international version of the One X shows the context menu that appears when a user long taps an item, whereas the American version removes this and places the relevant options in Android’s Settings area. As a result, the custom ban was lifted on the handsets and began shipping to retail stores.

[via Bloomberg]

Apple denied emergency HTC handset ban is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

At the end of last month, Samsung was faced with an injunction from the court that resulted in the possibility of Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus receiving a sales ban in the US – one of their major global markets. Not too long after that, Samsung naturally went on the defensive and decided to contest that injunction in the court, only to have their efforts shot down. Not only that, a US judge did reject another request by Samsung to prevent a ban on its Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales in the US, which is the third legal blow against the South Korean conglomerate in a space of one week.

Right now, there are legal battles being fought across approximately 10 countries between Apple and Samsung, where patents are their ammunition of choice, and these two fierce rivals intend to be the final word where mobile devices are concerned. Lee Sun-tae, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities, has somewhat softened the blow, saying, “The impact on Samsung is limited as shipment volume of Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Nexus are quite small. Even if Apple wins an injunction request on Galaxy S III, Samsung will have plenty of time to get around it, as it normally takes quite a long time for a court to process such requests.”

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple to block Samsung Galaxy Nexus sales in California, Apple sues Samsung in Germany again,

Just like they have been, products like the One X and EVO 4G LTE will continue to pour through US Customs, as the ITC has now denied Apple’s request for an emergency ban against the alleged infringing products. The news follows Apple’s request for an emergency ban itself, in which the Cupertino outfit accused HTC of making false statements in order to bypass the terms of an exclusion order issued last December. In the most recent ruling, the ITC found that, “Apple has not demonstrated the propriety of temporary emergency action,” and went on to state, “the commission will not direct Customs to detain all subject HTC products because the commission does not have the information necessary to determine whether the respondents are currently violating the commission’s limited exclusion order.” Just yesterday, the ITC began an investigation to determine whether HTC’s products continue to violate a patent held by Apple, which would be a violation of December’s exclusion order. Until the ITC issues a more definitive finding, however, it seems that HTC can breathe a sigh of relief.

ITC denies Apple’s request for emergency ban against HTC products originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jul 2012 22:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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