Patent Laws Are Getting Cloudy - Post - No Jitter

Regarding the cloud and intellectual property, "the barrier to entry into a new business has been reduced," Fred Logue, founder of New Morning IP, an Irish law firm specializing in intellectual property law for technology industries said. "In some ways this is good, because it means that more people can enter into a market and they can innovate. But in other aspects it's a bad thing, because a market with a low barrier to entry ... is open to wider competition than is the case where there is a high barrier to entry." While the cloud reduces the barrier to entry for innovation, moving from a hardware to a software model makes getting a technology patent more difficult, he added. He attributed this to biases in U.S. and European patent law.

No Jitter

Chinese High Court Returns Zhizhen's patent to SIPO

This has been reported on a number of different media site as Apple winning, but this report makes it seem that it has only been returned to SIPO for re-evaluation. Certainly a plus for Apple but if correct then the fight's not over yet.

"Apple was sued in 2012 over these allegations, which prompted it to file a petition in the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China (SIPO). Initially, the case seemed to be in favor of Zhizhen but it was until the last week, when the court asked the SIPO to further probe into the authenticity of the Zhizhen’s patent. "

Technews Today

Apple wins voice recognition patent case in China

The patent infringement dispute between Apple and Zhizhen goes back to June 2012, when Zhizhen, developer of speech recognition technology Xiao i Robot, filed a case against Apple for infringement of intellectual property rights, claiming that Siri technology violates its patent for "a type of instant messaging chat robot system."

Xiao i Robot, which began in 2003 as a chat bot for MSN, Yahoo Messenger and other chat programs, has expanded to iOS and Android, where it bears a striking resemblence to Siri.

At the same time, Apple applied to the Patent Review Committee under the State Intellectual Property Office to invalidate the Xiao i Robot patent. When the committee supported Xiao i Robot, the US-based tech giant sued the committee and the Shanghai company.

Full Story at The Economic Times

[As I found multiple copies online, I believe this story is syndicated. As this seems to be a major news site I presume I'm crediting a legitimate reprint -- Bruce Clement]

Microsoft Cuts Android Patent Fee To Attract Vendors To Pre-install Android Apps

Microsoft has made an offer to vendors in Taiwan and China to pre-install its application software such as Skype and Office programs like Word, Excel PowerPoint and OneDrive, on their Android devices, in exchange offering discounts on the patent licensing fees. On March 23, Microsoft signed an agreement with almost 11 vendors around the globe for pre-installation of its application softwares and now they have to pay fees for shipment of every Android based devices.

After the patent fees agreement, Microsoft patent licensing fees have grown remarkably, as the demand for Android devices shipments is rising. The discount given to Android products is a step towards increasing the usage of Microsoft application in the mobile devices.

Full Article: Larry Darrell at Bidness Etc

Telecoms Firms Lead WIPO International Patent Filings

"Three telecoms giants from China and the United States led international patent filing activity via WIPO in 2014, a fifth consecutive record-breaking year amid overall growth in the Organization’s global intellectual property services.

"Together, China and the U.S. accounted for 87% of the total growth in filings under WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which saw some 215,000 applications in 2014, a 4.5% increase over the previous year. In a significant development, the U.S. became the biggest filer of international trademark applications under WIPO’s Madrid System."

Full article WIPO

Pubblished on Software Patents 11 April 2015