M·CAM

Can an Apple a Day Keep The Trolls at Bay? Intellectual Property Analysis of MacroSolve, Inc. and Lodsys, LLC

In anticipation of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference scheduled for June of 2011, attention should be directed to the number of patent infringement lawsuits filed against Apple, Google, and Microsoft application developers in the $10 billion mobile app market.

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Intellectual Property Analysis of Progressive’s U.S. Patent No. 7,124,088

On January 12, 2011, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against a group of its competitors. The suit claims that Allstate, Liberty Mutual and Safeco have all infringed on Progressive’s U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,124,088 (hereafter ‘088) and 6,064,970. The patents in question describe and protect an online insurance policy system and vehicle monitoring system. Two weeks after the lawsuit was filed using patent ‘088, a continuation of this patent 7,877,269 (US ‘269) was granted to Progressive, containing largely similar claims.

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Intellectual Property Analysis of Ecosphere Technologies, Inc.’s Ozonix® Cavitational Reactor Technology

Recent technologies have emerged that enable energy companies to access large reserves of previously unproducible natural gas stored in shale rock. These developments free significant new energy resources from fields formerly not viable for commercial development. The extraction of shale gas depends largely upon hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking)—a process in which water is injected into a well, cracking the shale and releasing the natural gas.

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Intellectual Property Analysis of Imperium (IP) Holdings, Inc. v. Apple Inc. et. al.

On March 18, 2011, Imperium (IP) Holdings filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas accusing seven companies of infringing five of its patents. Imperium claims that LG, Kyocera, Nokia, Motorola Mobility, Apple, Sony and RIM have all committed infringement by manufacturing, selling or importing cell phones. The asserted patents all relate to image sensors and, in particular, photodiodes. Each of the five patents came to ESS Technology, Inc. as part of its 2003 acquisition of Pictos Technologies, Inc. from Conexant Systems, Inc.

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Intellectual Property Analysis of Microsoft Corporation v. Barnes & Noble, Inc. et. al.

On March 21, 2011, Microsoft filed a lawsuit asserting the Barnes & Noble Nook e-readers infringe five of its patents. In addition to Barnes & Noble, the case names the manufacturers of the device, Inventec and Hon Hai Precision Industry, as well as Hon Hai’s subsidiary Foxconn. Many view this latest suit as a further attack by Microsoft on Google’s Android software, on which the Nook is based. In October 2010, Microsoft brought infringement claims against Motorola, a maker of Android-based smart phones.

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