Technologizer

Laptopia! The World’s Weirdest Portable Computers

Monday, September 7, 2009

There aren’t many pieces of technological design that simply can’t be improved upon, but the clamshell-style laptop computer case–introduced by Grid Systems in 1982–may be one of them. That’s why the vast majority of the portable computers built ever since have used it. But for more than a quarter-century now, inventors have been trying to [...]

Microsoft’s Patent Pipedream

Thursday, September 3, 2009

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Yesterday, Microsoft’s Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez called for a world authority on patents, and a single judicial body for litigation. The world needs to cycle more resources toward processing backlogged patent applications and to allow corporations to protect their intellectual property, he said. “By facing the challenges, realizing a vision, overcoming political barriers, and removing [...]

EchoStar Ordered To Pay Up in TiVo Patent Case

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

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EchoStar will be forced to pay a total of $190 million to TiVo as a result of a Texas District Judge’s ruling that the company was infringing on technologies patented by TiVo. Furthermore, it was found the company had violated an earlier injunction by attempting to develop a “workaround” which it said still violated TiVo’s [...]

The Patents of Steve Jobs

Thursday, May 28, 2009

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Among the many uncanny parallels between Stephen Paul Jobs and Walter Elias Disney is this one: Very early on, both abandoned the work that in some respects might seem to define their careers. Walt Disney began as a cartoonist, but by the late 1920s he had nothing to do with the drawing of Disney cartoons [...]

Microsoft Patentmania

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

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Microsoft is celebrating its ten thousandth patent. And so am I, sort of–I just browsed through some of its 9,999 earlier ones, and found ten that were intriguing for one reason or another, with evocative drawings. (Did you know the company once patented a floppy-shaped PDA you could stick in a disk drive? I sure [...]

Ten of Microsoft’s Ten Thousand Patents

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

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Microsoft is making hay today over the news that it’s received its ten thousandth patent (which you can see here). I’m kind of addicted to rummaging through Google Patents and finding old filings with drawings that are fun for one reason or another–either because they’re of things we’re all familiar with, or because they depict [...]

Microsoft Patent Transforms Smartphones into PCs

Thursday, January 29, 2009

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Watchful eyes have caught a Microsoft patent application for a souped-up smartphone cradle that displaces the PC for connecting to networks, peripherals ,and storage. Smartphones have become nearly as powerful as desktop computers were just a few years ago, and it makes sense for Microsoft to leverage their capabilities in an innovative new way. The docking [...]

Did Apple Just Corner the Market on Multi-Touch? I Hope Not!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

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“We have invented a new technology called multi-touch…and it’s phenomenal.” –Steve Jobs at the Macworld Expo 2007 keynote that introduced the iPhone Lemme begin with my usual disclaimers: I’m not a patent attorney. Scratch that: When it comes to the mysteries of patent law, I’m not even a well-informed layman. But I do know that I’m bothered [...]

Palm Responds to Apple iPhone Patent Warnings

Friday, January 23, 2009

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First, Apple COO Tim Cook seemed to throw a brushback pitch at Palm’s upcoming Pre phone by talking about how vigorously Apple would defend its intellectual property immediately after a financial analyst had mentioned the Pre. Which left lots of folks with the impression that he might be suggesting that the Pre violated Apple patents [...]

Patent Holding Company Sues Computer and Software Makers

Monday, January 19, 2009

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Software patents are increasingly being used like lottery tickets: If you file enough of them, you’ll eventually have the winning number for litigation. Information Protection and Authentication of Texas (IPAT) has sued a dozen computer makers and some software developers for allegedly violating two security related patents that it holds. IPAT filed a formal complaint in [...]

Santa Patentmania

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

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Necessity may be the mother of invention, but a certain jolly old soul may be its father. At least that’s my conclusion after spending an evening delving through Google Patents for Santa-related patent drawings. I found hundreds of ‘em, and have chosen 25 to share with you at this most wonderful time of the year. [...]

The Santaland Patents

Monday, December 22, 2008

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Once you start digging through Google Patents, as I did for our recent slideshow of thirty-one years of Apple patents, it can be hard to stop. And if you’re doing your digging in December, you might find yourself choosing to luxuriate in the wealth of Christmas-themed patents that have been issued over the past 125 [...]

A Visual History of 31 Years of Apple Patent Filings

Monday, December 15, 2008

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Patent drawings are supposed to be dry, technical paperwork. Someone forgot to tell Apple, whose filings frequently make headlines. We dug deep into patent-office filings for highlights from Apple’s 31 years of drawings–breakthroughs, bombs, and more than a few fascinating dead ends. View Apple Patentmania slideshow

Apple Patentmania: 31 Years of Big Ideas

Monday, December 15, 2008

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Apple may be famously secretive, but there’s one guy the company has been confiding in for more than three decades now. That would be its Uncle Sam, in the form of the U.S. Patent Office. The company’s patent filings are a remarkable record of Apple’s brainstorms, from its biggest blockbusters to its most humbling flops [...]