Federal Circuit Invalidates Soverain eCommerce Patents

January 24, 2013 | Intellectual Property News
In a decision this week, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated a group of patents held by Soverain Software LLC and asserted against many companies for practicing electronic commerce, including use of a shopping cart model for sales transactions. Soverain Software sued many online retailers for infringement of several patents that include claims for use of an online shopping cart sales system and related electronic commerce methods. Most of the defendants settled the litigation by purchasing a license under the patents, but Newegg declined and elected to defend itself in court instead. A key part of Newegg’s defense was that the patents were invalid in view of earlier electronic buying systems such as the CompuServe Mall. At trial, the district court decided that Newegg had not presented enough evidence to show that the patents were invalid. In fact, the district court concluded that Newegg’s case was so lacking that it did not allow the jury to even consider the question. On appeal, the Federal Circuit disagreed. After a thorough review of the evidence, the Court of Appeals ruled that the Soverain patents were invalid because they were obvious in view of the prior art, including the CompuServe Mall references. In most cases, when a court of appeals reverses a district court decision it will remand the case to the trial court to reconsider the matter in view of the errors found on appeal. In this case, however, the court noted that because the district court ruled on obviousness as a question of law, the court of appeals could also reach its own ruling as a matter of law, without remanding it to the district court for further review. The decision is available at Soverain

Systems and methods for displaying information about financial markets

US Patent 8,355,972
January 24, 2013
Enhanced methods, systems, and techniques for displaying information about financial markets are provided. Example embodiments provide a Market Performance Indicator System (“MPIS”), which generates and provides indicators of market performance, based on obtained market information. In some embodiments, a performance indicator may include a directional indicator, such as an arrow or vector, indicating the value and/or change in value of one or more attributes of performance of an aspect of a financial market. Aspects of a financial market may include individual financial instruments, such as stocks and bonds, as well as aggregate information about a particular market, such as a market index. Attributes of performance may include price, volume of trading, and price variability.

Rollable solar charger

US Patent D674,746
January 22, 2013
The ornamental design for a rollable solar charger, as shown and described.

Court of Appeals Upholds Amendment to False Marking Statute

January 9, 2013 | Intellectual Property News
In the America Invents Act, Congress amended the false marking statute to remove the “qui tam” provision allowing any member of the public to file a complaint based on false patent marking. In a recent ruling, the court of appeals held that the amendment was constitutional. The false marking statue generally provides that products bearing patent numbers must do so properly. If a person marks a product with an erroneous patent number with an intent to deceive the public through the incorrect marking, that person (or company) can be liable for damages. An unusual aspect of the statute is that it includes a “qui tam” provision allowing members of the public at large to file such lawsuits, even if they have no connection with the product and suffered no injury. For decades this provision was seldom used because the remedy was understood to be trivial. But after a key court decision allowing for the possibility of large monetary awards to plaintiffs filing such cases, a cottage industry was born. Almost overnight, hundreds of cases were filed by plaintiffs asserting false marking and hoping to recover large damages as a result. In the America Invents Act, Congress amended the false marking statute to require a plaintiff to show a competitive injury in order to recover damages. This amendment would allow a competitor in the same industry to file a false marking lawsuit, but makes it virtually impossible for a random individual to file such a lawsuit, as had been the case previously. In addition, the amendment to the law was written to affect current lawsuits, already filed. As a result, many cases were immediately and summarily dismissed. Some of those plaintiffs challenged the new law as being unconstitutional by violating due process or amounting to a taking without compensation. In Brooks v. Dunlop Mfg., Inc., the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals held that the statute was proper, and was not unconstitutional even though it had retroactive effect.

Method and apparatus for ordering paint using a portable self-contained tool

US Patent 8,352,332
January 8, 2013
A method and a system for ordering paint to cover a surface includes, retrieving a color value from a machine-readable memory to a processor. The processor retrieves a paint quantity from a machine-readable memory. The processor compiles an order for paint including the paint quantity and color value and then transmits the order from the processor to a vendor for formulating the paint quantity having the color value when painted upon the surface and allowed to dry.

Cherry pitter

US Patent 8,347,783
January 8, 2013
A cherry pitter includes a container having a removable cherry holder with a plurality of cavities for holding cherries. A mating plurality of cutters is secured to the lid of the container, which is pivotally secured to the container. By rotating the lid downward the cutters are pushed into and through the cherries, pushing the pits into the container. A spring-loaded push-off plate holds the cherries down against the holder as the lid rotates upward again, separating the cherries from the cutters.

Triangular cup

US Patent D673,812
January 8, 2013
The ornamental design for a triangular cup, as shown and described.

Apparatus and method for active spring suspension of a vehicle component

US Patent 8,342,541
January 1, 2013
The invention relates to a vehicle comprising a vehicle component moveable in an oscillating manner with respect to a first vehicle component, and a first measuring means for measuring at least one acceleration measuring value of said first vehicle component with respect to a ground surface, wherein a calculating means is provided for determining an optimum acceleration value of said second vehicle component to be applied at the moment of the presence of the acceleration measuring value, and at least one actuator arranged between the first and second vehicle components, with control and closed-loop control units, for minimizing a deviation of a real acceleration value of said second vehicle component from the optimum acceleration value by using at least one available spring path.

Formulation of milk-based beverages for carbonation

US Patent 8,337,924
December 25, 2012
A composition for addition to a milk or milk-based beverage, in which a preferred embodiment of the composition includes on a w/w basis (to a total of 100) Silica between about 1% to about 10%, vegetable oil between about 20%-about 90%; and Polyglycol mix between about 10%-about 90%. The composition is provided in an amount to control foaming and frothing in the beverage as a result of carbonation.

Control-surface-mounted landing and taxi lights

US Patent 8,337,059
December 25, 2012
A lighting assembly for movable control surfaces of a vehicle. The light assembly includes a lens, a plurality of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a housing that receives the plurality of LEDs and the lens. The housing of the light assembly is received within the movable control surface, such that the lens is flush with a surface of the movable control surface. The light assembly includes a plurality of reflectors. The plurality of LEDs is rotatably mounted within the housing. The light assembly includes a controller that controls the position of the LEDs relative to the housing, based on a received control signal.