Hasta La Gadget!

Newegg just took out one of the biggest patent trolls on the web. A troll so pervasive, it threatened to put out a mafioso lawsuit-insurance tax on basically every online retailer on the internet. Here’s how it happened, as told in a great writeup over at Ars Technica. More »

In 1968, Martin Goetz received the first ever software patent, for an “improved data sorting algorithm”. Little did he know that he’d set a precedent which would, over time, turn into a legal shit storm. More »

As we’ve heard before, Google’s Glass project features are “still in flux” — could one be a bone-conduction speaker? It very well may, at least according to a US patent application published today. The gadget, described as a “wearable computing device with indirect bone-conduction speaker,” appears to be similar in structure to Glass. It includes “at least once vibration transducer,” so it’s possible that this HMD implementation wouldn’t offer stereo sound. This audio solution does seem within reach — Panasonic had functional bone-conduction headphones at CES, and while they weren’t quite loud enough to provide an earbud-like experience, they did indeed work. As with any patent application, the document confirms only that Google was considering such a technology, not that it’ll actually ship a similar device. So, if you’ve decided that your portable audio future will be headphone-free, you might want to keep an eye on Panasonic’s solution, instead.

Filed under: Displays, Portable Audio/Video, Wearables, Mobile, Google

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Source: USPTO

Back when Kodak announced that it would be filing for bankruptcy and selling off a large number of its patents to help with restructuring efforts, we all knew this sell off would be huge. As it turns out, that feeling was correct, with major players in the tech field like Google, Apple, and Microsoft all vying for a slice of that patent pie. Today a Judge approved the deal for those three tech giants to buy up Kodak’s patents, to the tune of $527 million.

That certainly seems like a significant amount of money, but it’s actually a very depressing amount for Kodak. The company was originally hoping to net $2 billion for the sale of its patents, so the amount it’s actually getting is a fair bit less than its target. In any case, Kodak will now use this money to climb out of bankruptcy, hopefully becoming a more efficient company in the process.

What’s more, this sale marks the end of a lot of patent litigation for Kodak, which is most important aspects of this deal. In all, 1,100 patents were sold off, but Google, Microsoft, and Apple weren’t the only buyers. It seems that a lot of big names were interested in snagging some Kodak patents, with companies like Facebook, Huawei, RIM, Adobe, Samsung, and Fujifilm also participating in the purchase.

Now Kodak has a tough road ahead of it. It’s never easy for a company to bounce back from bankruptcy, and it might be even harder for Kodak considering how much ground it has lost in recent years. Still, shedding a lot of pending litigation while raising a little cash on the side is definitely a good start, so we’ll just have to watch and see what happens to Kodak from here on out.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

Google, Apple, Microsoft given go ahead to buy up Kodak patents is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Patent wars are still raging in plenty of parts of the tech world, but today there’s something of a ceasefire between Google and Microsoft. Google has just filed with the ITC to stop attempts to prevent Microsoft from using certain compression techniques with the Xbox 360. More »