Patent Search and Filing

One Laptop Per Child sued for patent infringement (Macworld.com via Yahoo! News)
A Massachusetts company has sued the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Association for patent infringement, charging the project with stealing its designs for a multilingual keyboard.

Sears, Walgreen, TJX Sued For Giftcard Patent Violations (PC Magazine via Yahoo! News)
TJX was the seventh retailer to be sued, but not likely to be the last as Card Activation issued letters to 400 potential defendants.

(AFX UK Focus) 2007-11-19 16:06 GMT: AstraZeneca says European Patent Office rules Nexium, Losec tablet patent valid (Interactive Investor)
LONDON (Thomson Financial) – AstraZeneca has announced that the European Patent Office has ruled that a patent for multiple unit pellet formulation (MUPS) used in Nexium and Losec is still valid in amended form, despite four oppositions from generic drug manufacturers.

Acacia Loses Patent Case Vs. Microsoft (AP via Yahoo! Finance)
Acacia Research Corp., which develops, licenses and acquires patented technologies, said Friday a jury ruled against its subsidiary Computer Acceleration Corp. in a patent case filed against Microsoft Corp.

Vonage Patent Case Request Denied (AP via Yahoo! Finance)
Vonage Holdings Corp. must pay $120 million to settle its patent dispute with Verizon Communications Inc. after a federal court on Thursday denied the Internet phone provider’s request to rehear the case.

SMS Patent Suit Targets 131 Companies (DesignTechnica)
Patent holding company Technology Patents LLC has filed suit against a whopping 131 companies, alleging they’re infringing on patents covering international text messaging.

U R SUED: Patent holding company targets 131 companies over SMS patents (Ars Technica)
Patent holding company Technology Patents LLC has filed a lawsuit against a whopping 131 companies worldwide. It accuses these companies of knowingly infringing on two of its patents that address a fairly simple concept: international text messaging. Read More…

Google sued for search engine patent infringement (iTNews)
Google is being sued by Northeastern University and startup company Jarg for patent infringement regarding technology used in its Web search engine, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Marshall.

Apple loses bid to dismiss Burst.com’s patent suit over iPods (San Jose Mercury News)
Apple, which has sold more than 119 million iPod music players, lost a bid Thursday to have Burst.com’s patent-infringement lawsuit thrown out.

Microsoft Tries To Patent Conversational Closers (WebProNews)
Can t be bothered to type goodbye at the end of IM conversation? That s okay – Microsoft wants to do it for you. The real kicker, though, is that Microsoft also wants to patent this practice. A U.S. patent application states, a converser may be insulted when the user terminates a conversation without saying goodbye or may consider it to be rude to end a conversation abruptly without a …