14th December, 2009

Microsoft licenses out exFAT file system

Microsoft has begun to license its Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT) technology to be used in computers and other portable devices. The company is charging a license fee of $300,000 for device, such as cameras, camcorders, and digital photo frames, and a volume-based license fee for devices like phones, PCs, and networks.

The exFAT technology is already being used by its partners in the industry; Redmond has entered into exFAT licensing agreements with many companies including Sony, Canon, and Sanyo. SanDisk, is using the exFAT file system for its new extra capacity storage media.

Microsoft had filed a patent infringement lawsuit against TomTom in February 2009, alleging that TomTom's products infringe Microsoft's FAT32 file system patent; they settled in March 2009, TomTom licensed the patents from Microsoft.

ADT won Sensormatic Infringement case

ADT Security Services has won a patent lawsuit against ZhenTai Science & Technology Co. in China.  ZhenTai Science & Technology Co. was infringing upon ADT’s Sensormatic anti-theft Ultra•Max label technology.

The suit tried in a Chinese court, included acousto-magnetic (AM) labels manufactured by ZhenTai, which were sold both in China and were exported abroad. This ruling prevents ZhenTai from making, using or selling its infringing labels. The company was also ordered to destroy any equipment, molds and drawings used in producing the labels and to pay damages to Sensormatic.

In a year this is the second court ruling against a company infringing Sensormatic anti-theft label patents. A U.S. court had found in December 2008 that a United Kingdom-based The Tag Co. was guilty of patent infringement, misappropriating trade secrets and unfair trade practices.

Another U.S. Patent for Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp.

The Government of India has announced that the patent examiners of USPTO will have the access to a new digital database containing the compiled data of Indian traditional knowledge digital library. It was indeed a useful effort as for USPTO the information is required for the procedure of patent filing in traditional knowledge. Although a US patent on traditional knowledge will not stop indigenous peoples using the knowledge, it will only prevent using that knowledge in the US to make, use, sell, and offer for sale or import products that may violate the issued patent. The access to this library will prevent the misuse and unauthorized exploitation of traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples in US, thus controls the patenting activity related to traditional knowledge in US.

Cerner Corp. wins patent infringement dispute.

Cerner did not infringe on Baltimore-based Visicu Inc.’s hospital intensive care patents, according to a federal jury verdict in the U.S. Western District of Missouri found that Cerner had sued Visicu, which now is owned by Philips Healthcare Global, in 2004. Cerner’s lawsuit was prompted by Visicu’s allegation that a monitoring product for intensive care units of Cerner infringed on Visicu’s patents. The lawsuit claimed that Visicu had sent letters to Cerner and its clients to restrain from selling or buying the monitoring products.

Cerner’s triumph which ends a five-year court battle puts an end to Visicu’s mailings. Visicu filed a counterclaim claiming that the company was owed just less than $5 million in damages from Cerner and sought to prevent Cerner from selling the product.

Garmin and Honeywell sued by Pioneer

The International Trade Commission (ITC) has agreed to hear a lawsuit that Pioneer Corp. had filed against Garmin Ltd, the top U.S. navigation device maker and Honeywell International Inc., alleging the two companies infringed its patented technology.

The company has asked the commission to stop the import of any global positioning system device made with its technology that infringes any of the three Pioneer patents in the suit. A ban on the sale of imported devices infringing the patented technology has been sought.

A similar suit has been filed against Garmin in Germany. Both the suits result from a patent licensing dispute. Garmin has about 55 percent to 60 percent of the U.S. market for navigation devices. The patents under argument relate to on-vehicle navigational functions, including the automatic erasing of data as the destination draws near, or showing the distance from a vehicle to various locations.

P&G in lawsuit over teeth whitening patches

The world's largest consumer-products company, Procter & Gamble Co. was sued by South Korea's LG Household & Health Care Ltd. over two patents relating to teeth whitening patches.

According to the lawsuit filed in the federal court in Delaware, P&G's Crest Whitestrips Advanced Seal product infringes two LG patents issued in 2004 complaint. LG Household, South Korea's largest producer of household goods seeks unstipulated damages and a ban on P&G from selling the products.

The patented technology relates to the adhesive layer of the strips and the patents are for a dry type tooth-whitening patch using peroxide as a whitening agent. P&G had initiated the sale of Crest Whitestrips in 2000 and introduced the Advanced Seal version in January. The new strips used by more than 50 million people offer high- performance whitening and a better fit with instant adhesion to teeth.