Please donate your idle patents

According to Yahoo, "not-for-profit groups and state governments are asking companies to donate dormant patents so they can be passed to local entrepreneurs who try to build businesses out of them.

In fact, about 90 percent to 95 percent of all patents are idle, according to Ron Sampson, the secretary of the not-for-profit National Institute for Strategic Technology Acquisition and Commercialization in Manhattan, Kan.

It is interesting to note that companies used to receive tax benefits for donating patents but Congress ended the incentive in 2004 after too many companies tried to unload useless patents with little chance of being commercialized.

Now that federal tax breaks have been eliminated, there's less of an incentive for companies to offer unused patents."

(link to the full article)

Companies raided on show floor for patent infringement

According to MacWorld, Local customs and police officers confiscated products from the stand of at least one exhibitor at Germany’s Cebit fair on Wednesday on suspicion the devices infringed on MPEG audio patents, a patent licensing agency said.
“It’s the second time we are at Cebit and last year we already had some actions regarding infringing products,” said Thomas Hartmann, senior manager at Societa Italiana per lo Sviluppo dell’Elettronica SpA (Sisvel), in an interview with IDG News Service. The company analyzes the exhibitor list of Cebit and other trade fairs before it begins to identify exhibitors that might have products that are infringing on MPEG audio patents, he said.
You might want to check Sisvel website.

Be careful what you eat! RFID tags are now edible

Kodak has filed a new patent application (US Patent Application No2007/0008113) which has just been published at the USPTO for technology related to eatable RFID tags.
Let's check the independent claims:

1. A system for monitoring ingestion of medicine comprising:
forming an antenna comprised of metal segments and said medicine;
forming a digestible radio frequency identification (RFID) tag comprised of at least one of said antennas;
ingesting said RFID tag; receiving signals and power from an external transmitter;
transmitting signals from said RFID tag to an external receiver; and monitoring a signal from said RFID tag.

6. A system for monitoring ingestion of medicine comprising:
coating particles of said medicine with a conductive material;
forming an antenna of said coated medicine forming a digestible radio frequency identification (RFID) tag comprised of at least one antenna;
ingesting said RFID tag; receiving signals and power from an external transmitter;
transmitting signals from said RFID tag to an external receiver;
monitoring a signal from said RFID tag; and wherein dissolution of said antenna indicates digestion of said medicine.

7. A digestible radio frequency identification (RFID) tag for monitoring ingestion of medicine comprising: an antenna comprised of said medicine and conductive segment; a circuit connected to said antenna; a resonant cavity connected to said circuit; and wherein said antenna is dissolved by digestion of said medicine.

You better check what you eat!

Vonage found guilty of violating Verizon patents

According to MarketWatch, a federal jury said Vonage Holdings Corp. violated several patents of Verizon Communications Inc.
The immediate damage to Vonage: $58 million, 70% less than the $197m sought, and an ongoing 5.5% royalty if Vonage doesn't figure a workaround. The infringement was found not willful. Verizon is seeking a permanent injunction.

Petition for a Wiki-style examination

According to the Washington Post, the USPTO is starting a new project that will not only post patent applications on the Web and invite comments but also use a community rating system designed to push the most respected comments to the top of the file, for serious consideration by the agency's examiners.
Under the pilot project, some companies submitting patent applications will agree to have them reviewed via the Internet. The list of volunteers already contains some of the most prominent names in computing, including Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle, as well as IBM, though other applicants are welcome.