Weapon Shock Simulator Patent Granted to Ascendant Engineering Services

June 12, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

San Diego – Ascendant Engineering Services (AES) announced today that it was granted a patent for its ground-breaking small arms weapon shock simulator technology. Patent 8,166,797 was awarded to the highly anticipated product, and is intended for use by the U.S. Military and other companies that regularly do business with the Department of Defense. The product was also recently presented to the prestigious NDIA Joint Armaments Conference in Seattle, Washington. AES is excited about the implications that its newest technology could have on the future of small weapons testing and certification.

AES created the Small Arms Weapon Shock Simulator to provide a more environmentally friendly product that could also offer substantial cost savings to the U.S. Military and Department of Defense contractors. Currently, the military requires soldiers to certify weapons for use. This certification process involves individual soldiers taking the newly configured weapon systems onto the field to be fired thousands of times. However, this method is considered grossly inefficient because of the cost of utilizing soldiers and the high cost of ammunition. Additionally, when weapons are fired thousands of times, toxins are released into the ground, atmosphere and potentially onto the soldiers firing the weapons. The Weapon Shock Simulators allow the military and other related industries to bypass the traditional methods of certification and use a machine instead. Currently, AES is the only small arms weapon shock simulator proven to recreate known live fire failures on units under test and the only weapon shock simulator approved for shock test in place of small arms live fire for the Department of Defense.

The U.S. Army already uses the Weapon Shock Simulator as a substitute for its live fire testing. And given the current trend in attempting to both minimize costs and create more environmentally friendly practices, the other branches of the military and Department of Defense contractors will likely follow the Army’s lead soon.

AES, located outside of Austin, Texas was founded in 2004 by a group of engineers. The company is excited about its future prospects and the opportunities its newly patented technology will create. “In the year since we launched the WSS, we have received tremendous feedback from customers and prospective customers about additional ways that we could use this technology to create new products that would gain immediate traction in the defense industry,” said Jon Noeth, co-founder and President of the company. “The patent gives us the comfort to move forward on some of those initiatives.”

Vapor Corp. Files For Patent To Improve Its Cigarette Alternative

June 8, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

San Diego – Smoking alternatives and methods for quitting have become a hugely popular and lucrative industry. There are over 7,000 chemicals in cigarettes, and 250 of those chemicals are harmful while 69 can cause cancer. Consequently, millions of smokers are becoming motivated to quit or cut back on their cigarette habits.

One alternative to smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes is the use of a device called an electronic cigarette. Celebrities such as Kristen Stewart, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert Pattinson, have all been recently photographed using electric cigarettes to curb their smoking habits. Capitalizing on the momentum of this new trend, Vapor Corp. has filed for a patent to improve its electric cigarette technology. The original patent application filed in 2011 was provisional and included the technology for its electric cigarettes. The most recent addition to its patent application is non-provisional, and adds an improved padded cartridge making the electronic smoking device look and feel more like a real cigarette.

Most electric cigarettes are comprised of a battery, a nicotine cartridge and an atomizer. The battery powers the cigarette, and creates a glowing tip similar to the lighted end of a real cigarette. The nicotine cartridge contains liquid nicotine and optional flavoring. The Atomizer gets hot and vaporizes the nicotine solution, which is then inhaled as vapor by the smoker. Existing cigarette cartridges are typically made of metal or hard plastic. The new soft tip created by Vapor Corp. offers a more realistic experience for users that will more closely resemble an actual cigarette. As such, the padded cigarette cartridge is a significant improvement for the e-cigarette market of products.

Vapor Corp. is a leading distributor and marketer of electronic cigarettes, with brands including Smoke Fifty-One®, Krave®, Green Puffer®, Americig®, VAPOR-X® and EZ Smoker®. Located near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Vapor owns the largest portfolio of brands of any e-cigarette company and considers itself an innovator in the field of electronic cigarette devices. Vapor’s electronic cigarettes are available online, on television and through retail locations throughout the United States.

U.S. Patent Granted to San Diego Pharmaceutical Company

June 5, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

San Diego – La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company, a Biopharmaceutical company based in San Diego, has recently been granted a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a patent covering compositions of modified pectins. On its website, La Jolla Pharmaceutical states that its company is “dedicated to the development of treatments that significantly improve outcomes in patients with life-threatening diseases” and the issued patent number 8,187,642 gives the company the ability to do just that. Patent ’642, which modifies pectin compositions and molecules, is protected until 2025.

Dr. George F. Tidmarsh, President and CEO of La Jolla Pharmaceutical stated, “We are pleased to receive this patent protection which broadens and further extends our intellectual property position for modified pectins,” and “The issuance of this patent comes at a strategically important time for us as we prepare to move forward with clinical trials of our lead compound, GCS-100, in oncology, kidney disease and organ transplant indications.”

The ability to modify pectin compositions, which this patent provides for, has the potential to “bind and sequester galectin-3″ which has been linked to the responsibility of diseases in humans such as cancer. This patent could possibly help in improved solutions for these diseases.

Patent ’642 is one of three of the pharmaceutical company’s patents that are linked to developing a reduction in cancer’s growth rate. In the technology portion of its website the company states “La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company is leveraging the unique biochemistry of the galectin family of proteins to develop innovate therapies to treat a multitude of human diseases. In particular, over-expression of galectin-3 (one member of the galectin family) has been implicated in cancer and chronic organ failure. Thus, modulation of galectin-3 activity is an attractive therapeutic target. GCS-100, La Jolla’s lead product, is a first-in-class inhibitor designed to sequester and eliminate circulating levels of galectin-3.”

San Diego Based Company Neology Files Second Patent Infringement Lawsuit

June 1, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

San Diego – Last week San Diego based Neology filed a second lawsuit against Federal Signal and related companies for patent infringement. The primary products concerned in the lawsuit are radio frequency identification related products (RFID). RFID technology involves wireless non-contact systems that utilize radio frequency to transfer data for tracking and identification purposes. The previous lawsuit, filed in Delaware, concerned possible infringement of six United States patents held by Neology. Although the first lawsuit is still pending litigation, Neology has moved for preliminary injunction on three of the six patents involved in the lawsuit.

In its latest lawsuit, Neology is alleging infringement of two more patents and is demanding an immediate and permanent injunction related to all infringed patents. As such, Federal Signal would be prevented from all direct or indirect manufacture, use or distribution, advertising, and import or export of all alleged infringing products. Because of the nature of the technologies involved, both the current and previous lawsuits are expected to be fully litigated within the next year.

Neology is a RFID technology company that currently holds 51 patents for proprietary RFID technologies. Additionally, Neology has nearly 400 patents worldwide and over 100 patents pending. Radio frequency identification technology is a huge part of many government and international travel control and regulation systems. Many of Neology’s patents are used worldwide for border patrol, vehicle registration, electronic toll collection, passport verification, pharmaceutical control and protection of secure documents.

Neology is unique in the RFID industry not only for its diverse portfolio of applications, but also for its total vertical integration of RFID solutions. From its custom designs to device development and software integration, to field installation, Neology is the primary provider in RFID technologies.

Neology is headquartered in San Diego, California and has secondary offices in Mexico City. The latest lawsuit demonstrates that Neology is fully committed to initiating more infringement lawsuits as necessary to protect its intellectual property.

Sony Seeks Patent to Adjust Glasses-Free 3-D Technology

May 24, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

San Diego – According to recent filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Sony has applied for a patent for a correction to its existing Glasses-Free 3-D technology.

Industry experts have historically agreed that the success of Autostereoscopic 3-D technology has been dependent on the viewer’s angle and distance from the viewing screen. Sony, one of the leaders in the 3-D television market, was one of the first mainstream companies to release its 3-D technology toward that end in 2010. 3-D television technology that did not require viewing glasses was unveiled not long after that. However, critics quickly noted problems with 3-D display images that included blurring, image distortion and a less than optimal view when the viewer wasn’t lined up to a precise and exact distance and angle.

Past limitations of 3-D technology without glasses were a result of a fixed arrangement of lenses that did not allow for adjustment that would separate the images as needed. Essentially, the viewer was often in the wrong place for viewing the images. In particular, depending on how near or far the viewer was from the screen, the depth of picture could easily be over or under-exaggerated. As a result of these imaging issues, the viewer could end up with headaches or nausea in extreme cases. The new technology proposed by the current Sony patent involves a correction that would enable the device to detect the viewer’s distance from the screen and automatically adjust the separation of images to provide optimal viewing clarity and sharpness of picture.

The new Sony patent includes both the image processing methodology and the corresponding entertainment system for image display. Additionally, Sony’s new technology would shift image elements in either or both the left and right eye images while viewing the Glasses-Free 3-D images. This shift would alter viewing displacements and create a point of intersection of lines of sight between the viewer and his or her image elements. The result would be a depth separation of image elements, creating the same effect as if the viewer had been viewing images at the ideal distance and angle.

Slot Machine Maker and Casinos Sued for Patent Infringement

May 11, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

San Diego – Rembrandt Gaming Technologies of Arlington, Virginia has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against slot machine manufacturer WMS Gaming and four casino operators over allegations that a certain feature on the slot machines infringe the company’s patent.

The patent infringement complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for Nevada, has named WMS, Boyd Gaming Corp., Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., MGM Resorts International Operations Incorporated, and Penn National Gaming Inc. as defendants that have allegedly infringed on Rembrandt’s “Electronic Second Spin Slot Machine” patent. According to the lawsuit, the machines reportedly have an automatic “re-spin” feature and include titles such as Dr. Jackpot, Dukes of Hazzard, Ghostbusters, Sex and the City, and Wheel of Fortune Triple Spin.

Rembrandt released a press saying that the patent at issue was granted in 2003 with New Mexico-based computer scientist Michael J. Dietz as the inventor.

“Michael Dietz used his imagination and technical skills to invent the slot machine hold and re-spin feature claimed in his patent. Very simply, the defendants used Mr. Dietz’s invention for their profit and did not pay for their use,” stated Rembrandt’s chairman, Paul Schneck, in the press release.

In the lawsuit, Rembrandt submitted evidence of a WMS promotional video that was explaining the re-spin feature as: WMS Spinning Streak machines have fifteen reels spinning independently and when a winning symbol appears, it is held while the other reels re-spin. The announcer in the video exclaims, “Finally, a slot machine that holds on to the good stuff!”

Rembrandt IP Management, a patent enforcement company, and owner of the plaintiff Rembrandt Gaming Technologies, released the following statement regarding the lawsuit: “We work with owners of strong patents that have great market value, and we enforce these patents against major companies that may infringe upon them.”

A spokesperson for WMS said the company could not comment on pending litigation.

Back in the Swing of Things: San Diego’s Callaway Golf Settles Patent Dispute

May 7, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

San Diego – More than six years after San Diego based Callaway Golf became embroiled in a heated patent infringement battle with competitor Acushnet, the two companies have announced a joint settlement “of all pending litigation and disputes, including disputes beyond the golf ball suits between the parties.”

The settlement did not involve either party paying the other money, however the agreement
will allow both companies to manufacture and market golf ball and golf club components under patents owned by the other.

In February 2006, Callaway Golf filed a patent infringement complaint against Acushnet after the Fairhaven, Massachusetts-based company submitted a reexamination request of four Callaway golf ball patents with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In the complaint, Callaway claimed that certain patents it had acquired from Spalding in a 2003 bankruptcy auction had been infringed by Acushnet’s Pro V1 golf balls. After numerous legal filings, lawsuits, countersuits, rulings, and reversals, the court ruled in favor of Callaway in December 2007. However, that verdict was set aside by an appeals court, leading Callaway to request a new trial.

In 2011, Callaway suffered a major setback in the case when the Board of Patent Appeals declared that Acushnet’s claims that the four patents were indeed invalid, a ruling that was eventually followed by a judgment in Acushnet’s favor in a Delaware U.S. District Court. Furthermore, that ruling was appealed by Callaway just months before the two companies came to the out-of-court settlement.

The patents at issue involve breakthrough technology for producing multilayer, solid core golf balls. This type of premium golf ball, consisting of the solid core surrounded by a thin, hard mantle and soft-feeling cover made of urethane or a similar elastomer, is highly appealing to the very best golfers.

Callaway Golf Company, the world’s largest manufacturer of golf clubs, markets and sells its equipment and accessories in more than seventy countries through golf retailers, sporting goods stores, mass merchants, directly online, and through its pre-owned and trade-in programs. Founded by Ely R. Callaway, Jr., Callaway Golf was initially made golf clubs that were hickory sticks, which were hickory shafts with a steel core.

Microsoft Sells AOL Patents to Facebook for $550 Million

April 25, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

San Diego – Just a few weeks after acquiring a large number of patents from a floundering America Online (AOL), Microsoft has announced that it will be transferring off most of those patents to Facebook.

Of the 925 patents Microsoft purchased from AOL for a reported $1.06 billion cash deal, it will be selling off or licensing 650 of those patents to social networking giant Facebook for $550 million in cash. Although through the purchase Facebook will have rights to use many of the patents it didn’t purchase outright, Microsoft will retain the rights to many of the patents for offensive or defensive purposes.

Many companies look to purchase patents from flailing companies as a way to bolster their own patent portfolios for development purposes as well as for ammunition in patent infringement situations. This practice has become increasingly common in the high tech industry especially with many of these companies taking advantage of the high-revenue licensing deals these patents bring as well.

Shortly before the company is scheduled to go public, Facebook has been on somewhat of a spending spree, having reportedly purchased 750 patents from IBM. According to the company’s S-1 filing, as of the end of last year, Facebook was the owner of 56 USPTO issued patents, 503 U.S. patent applications, and 149 patent applications filed in foreign countries, relating to social networking, web technologies and infrastructure, and related technologies.

The acquisition of these patents has helped Facebook tremendously in last month’s patent attack by Yahoo. Facebook has managed to protect itself by counter-suing with a patent for every patent that Yahoo claims it has infringed. Rather than give up valuable shares just before its IPO, Facebook has refused to lay down and pay up like Google did in 2004. This would have indicated weakness and made investors nervous just before it goes public.

“Today’s agreement with Microsoft represents a major acquisition for Facebook,” stated a spokesperson for Facebook. “This is another significant step in our ongoing process of building an intellectual property portfolio to protect Facebook’s interests over the long term.”

Under the agreement, Microsoft will keep a license to every one of the patents it originally purchased from AOL: the 650 it sold to Facebook, ownership of the 275 patents it retained, and additionally the 350 patents AOL never sold. The Facebook transaction will allow Microsoft to recoup some of its costs from the AOL patent purchase, and also allow it to retain rights to the technology.

San Diego Based Sequenom Acquires Pending Patents for $1.3 Million

April 19, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

San Diego – Sequenom, a San Diego manufacturer of a variety of genetic tests, has acquired two pending patents from Helicos Biosciences Corp. The two companies reportedly entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement in which Sequenom purchased all rights, title and interest in Helicos’ pending patents for Methods for Detecting Fetal Nucleic Acids and Diagnosing Fetal Abnormalities.

Sequenom paid Helicos $1.3 million for the acquisition of the purchased assets.

Helicos president and CEO Ivan Trifunovich, explained that the technology behind the patents is for sequencing applications in prenatal molecular diagnostics. Helicos is not currently competing in that market, however Sequenom is a market leader. The purchase of the pending patents will help strengthen Sequenom’s foothold in arena for fetal abnormality testing.

“The Helicos patent estate continues to dominate several aspects of the next-generation sequencing field, and the company intends to continue vigorously defending its IP rights through licensing and patent enforcement strategies, including the ongoing lawsuit with Illumina, Life Technologies, and Pacific Biosciences,” Trifunovich said in a statement.

Proceeds from the sale of the Helicos’ pending patents will go towards funding its ongoing operations.

In recent years, Helicos has downsized its Cambridge, Massachusetts corporate office to under 7,000 square feet as of last September from 54,000 square feet the previous year. After failing to meet the minimum $50 million market value requirement, the company was taken off of the Nasdaq stock exchange in November 2010. Helicos has focused much of the blame for poor sales of its gene sequencing machines on the infringement of its patented technologies by competitors, leading to several legal battles.

Helicos reported a revenue loss of $1.2 million in 2011, from the previous year’s revenue of $4.4 million.

Sequenom, however, has had a recent run of success, with much of that attributed to its new Materni T21 laboratory blood test to detect the fetal abnormality Down Syndrome as early as ten weeks into gestation. For the first quarter of 2012, the company reported it had billed for approximately 5,000 Materni T21 tests, and has subsequently increased its year-end goal to 40,000 billed tests, up from its original forecast of 25,000 billed tests. The test is not yet FDA-approved and has an out-of-pocket cost of $235 for the patient.

Facebook Accuses Yahoo of Patent Infringement

April 11, 2012, by Mandour & Associates, APC

San Diego – The ongoing patent infringement battle between Yahoo! and Facebook continues to heat up. A couple of weeks ago, Yahoo filed a lawsuit against Facebook accusing the world’s largest social media website of infringing on ten of its technology patents which include online advertising technology.

In a counterclaim filed just this week with the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Facebook is claiming that Yahoo is infringing on ten of its patents. The social media giant claims that Yahoo is infringing on its patents related to social networking, advertising, and privacy controls. As of recently, Facebook has been in many headlines including having just recently acquired 750 of IBM’s patents and adding them to its expanding intellectual property portfolio.

When Facebook was hit with Yahoo’s patent infringement lawsuit last month, a representative of Yahoo made a statement regarding the lawsuit saying, “As we have made clear from the outset, the unauthorized use of our patented technology is unacceptable and must be resolved appropriately,” and “other leading companies license these technologies, and Facebook must do the same or change the way it operates.” In light of Facebook’s counterclaim, Yahoo stated that the complaint against it was “”without merit and nothing more than a cynical attempt to distract from the weakness of its defense.” In recent week’s Yahoo has seen its revenue decline and its shares fell 2.4 percent on Tuesday afternoon when the counterclaim was filed.

Yahoo and Facebook join a growing list of patent infringement related lawsuits including giants in the technology field such as Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., Apple Inc., and Microsoft Corp. Facebook has claimed to be “irreparably harmed” by Yahoo’s lawsuit and in the counterclaim filed this week it is seeking unspecified damages and a jury trial as well as the dismissal of Yahoo’s lawsuit. A member of Facebook’s general counsel stated, “While we are asserting patent claims of our own, we do so in response to Yahoo’s short-sighted decision to attack one of its partners and prioritize litigation over innovation.”

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