Samsung Facing Patent Infringement Suit From Taiwan University

Samsung Electronics Co.’s latest smartphone, the Galaxy S4, offers an innovative feature — users can erase people from photos taken with the device. A commercial for the phone shows a mother fixing a photo of her son receiving his diploma after another graduate jumps in the frame.  While the technology is a strong selling point, Samsung may have to fight to keep it.

The company is facing a patent infringement lawsuit from National Cheng Kung University. The school, based in Taiwan, alleges that the devices infringe its patent for “Image-Capturing Device and Method For Removing Strangers From An Image.” The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued the patent in 2008.

National Cheng Kung University filed the patent lawsuit in Texas Eastern District Court. It seeks a permanent injunction to stop Samsung from infringing on the patent, as well as unspecified monetary damages.

Both parties have been active participants in the so-called “Smartphone Wars.” National Cheng Kung University has filed several lawsuits against Apple Inc. in the same Texas court. In a suit filed last year, the school alleged that Apple’s “voice activated assistant capabilities otherwise known as Siri” infringed upon patents held by a university research team. Last month, it filed another infringement suit involving Apple’s Face Time product.

Samsung, of course, is also no stranger to patent litigation with Apple. The two companies have been battling across the globe for the past several years, with each claiming a measure of success. Samsung recently won a victory before the U.S. International Trade Commission, which ruled that several older Apple devices infringe Samsung patents. 

How Can I Help?

If you, or someone you know, need any help with Intellectual Property issues, from filing a patent, trademark or copyright, or just need advice regarding how best to protect your inventions, ideas or your brand, please contact me for a free 30 minute consultation at nvantreeck@usip.com or call TOLL FREE at 1-855-UR IDEAS (1-855-874-3327) and ask for Norman.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

Small PhoneSats the next big thing?

Yesterday, I told you about the 1st ever crowd sourced satellite, the Skycube.  I turns out however, that Sunday NASA also launched three low-cost smartphone satellites aboard the maiden flight of Orbital Science Corp.’s Antares rocket.

The PhoneSats are transmitting data packets on the amateur radio spectrum.  You can see what data is being transmitted by the Phonesats here. If you are an amateur radio operator and you can help the project by submitting them to NASA (go citizen scientists!). The dashboard page will give you all the information you need to track the satellites in real time.

(memegenerator.net)

The two PhoneSat 1.0 satellites, Graham and Bell, transmit signal every 28 and 30 seconds respectively.  A new PhoneSat 2.0 test satellite, Alexander, transmits every 25 seconds.  You need to hurry, the satellites are only expected to remain in orbit for about two weeks before de-orbiting to a fiery death.

The goal of the PhoneSat missions are to determine if off the shelf smartphones, or smartphone components, can be used as the main flight avionics of a capable, yet very inexpensive, satellite.  Much like the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars (who both exceeded their original missions by a long time).

The PhoneSats already have many of the systems needed for a satellite, including fast processors, versatile operating systems, multiple miniature sensors, high-resolution cameras, GPS receivers and several radios.

“Smartphones offer a wealth of potential capabilities for flying small, low-cost, powerful satellites for atmospheric or Earth science, communications, or other space-born applications. They also may open space to a whole new generation of commercial, academic and citizen-space users.”

Images taken with the Phonesats will be transmitted back to Earth in smaller packets.  These packets will, hopefully, be received by amateur radio operators around the world.

NASA engineers kept the total cost of the components for the three prototype satellites in the PhoneSat project under $7,000 using mostly commercial hardware. The hardware used for this mission is the Google-HTC Nexus One smartphone running the Android operating system.  I wonder if there is now going to be a bidding war by other manufactures to make their claim to space capable smartphones.  The engineers did have to modify the phones for use in space by adding a larger, external lithium-ion battery bank (no recharging in orbit, also it seems that it would be trivial to add a solar battery charger) and a more powerful radio (no cell towers for miles, literally) to send messages and data from space back to Earth.

I wonder if I can send my own phone into space? I do know people with rockets capable of sub-orbital flight. Hmmm…more importantly, I wonder if my insurance will cover the replacement cost of the phone.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California. As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

A-Maze-ing!

Okay, nothing about astronomy in this post, but I thought this was cool anyway.

It seems the people over at Google have create a program that allows you to turn any website into a 3D marble maze.  To start you need to have both Google’s Chrome browser and a smartphone to control the marble.

You then go to http://chrome.com/maze/ and enter the URL of the website, which is then converted to a 3D maze.  After you install the smartphone app (at least Android 4.0 or iOS 5) and sync it up with the browser, you are all set to go.

Using your smartphone, you move the marble along the slightly inclined flat maze trying to collect blue gems. You have 300 seconds (5 minutes) and three lives to play with.

I can already see the competitiveness of web developers trying to make the hardest mazes possible.  Thereby, make their sites unusable by mortals anywhere, but great gaming!

What ever happened to pinball?

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities.  Connect with me on Google +.  If you need help with any patent, trademark, or copyright issue, or know someone that can use my help, please contact me for a free 30 minute consultation by sending me an email or call TOLL FREE at 1-855-UR IDEAS (1-855-874-3327) and ask for Norman.

Norman

Jailbreaking Is Still Legal In The U.S.

Every three years, the U.S. Copyright Office reconsiders exclusions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) provisions prohibiting the circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works.

The Copyright Office states that “the purpose of this proceeding is to determine whether there are particular classes of works as to which users are, or are likely to be, adversely affected in their ability to make non-infringing uses due to the prohibition on circumvention of access controls.”

Since the passage of the DMCA, the Copyright Office has granted numerous exceptions. One of the major exceptions was granted in 2010, the Office decided that cell phone “jailbreaking” — the popular term for removing built-in restrictions on the use of a device — should be

In recent hearings, the Copyright Office heard arguments in favor of expanding the exemption as well as arguments in favor of eliminating it altogether.

Jesse Feder, director of international trade and intellectual property for the Business Software Alliance (BSA), spoke out against jailbreaking, arguing that the practice enables piracy.

“Jailbreaking is a precondition for installing pirated software,” he said. “Technological protection measures are central to a distribution system that benefits consumers, independent app developers and third-party content creators, as well as developers of mobile operating systems.”

Meanwhile, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called for expanded protections for jailbreaking.

“The DMCA is supposed to block copyright infringement. But instead it can be misused to threaten creators, innovators and consumers, discouraging them from making full and fair use of their own property,” EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry said in a statement last year after the EFF filed comments with the Copyright Office. “Hobbyists and tinkerers who want to modify their phones or video game consoles to run software programs of their choice deserve protection under the law.”

The Copyright Office upheld the controversial practice this past year.  However, tablet computers have not been granted the same broad exemption.  The Federal Register says that since the category of tablets is difficult to define it would be dangerous to issue a blanket exemption.  With the ever-increasing size of phones (I personally own a Galaxy Note II) it seems arbitrary to make the distinction based on whether a device has a radio and earpiece or not.

How Can I Help?

If you, or someone you know, need help to figure out if your copyright is being infringed, please contact me for a free 30 minute consultation by sending me an email or call TOLL FREE at 1-855-UR IDEAS (1-855-874-3327) and ask for Norman.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities.  Connect with me on Google +

Norman

Asus Transformer Prime Enters the World of Amateur Astronomy

Here is a story of how a Transformer Prime owner used his tablet to take images of the moon.  I also have a Prime and use it to control my mount for astrophotography using this great program from Souther Stars SkySafari Pro (both fro iOS and Android) and the Blutooth adapter that they also sell.  There are a lot of other astronomy programs, both free and for pay, that are available.  Also, there is a great program that will allow you to control your Canon camera from your phone/tablet.  This combined with SkySafari equals a portable astrophotography setup that is hard to beat.  Let me know if you have a favorite tablet/smartphone astronomy program.

– Ex astris, scientia –