Let's just Nuke Eastern Texas. 2-3 strategically placed W48 Shells would rid us of the incompetence.
The problem with this district regarding patent trolls is the judge's son is a prosecutor there.
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Apple Faces Patent Lawsuit Over iPhone's Battery Technologies
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The problem with this district regarding patent trolls is the judge's son is a prosecutor there.
Can we please just shut down all courts in East Texas? If they're not going to take the job seriously then prosecutions need to start being moved to places that do.
I mean, a patent dispute being resolved in East Texas is basically a declaration that the patent is invalid and should never have been issued in the first place.
I mean, a patent dispute being resolved in East Texas is basically a declaration that the patent is invalid and should never have been issued in the first place.
I have all the background and other updating on WiFi only.
I don't have push notifications on for e-mails, but that is because I will not
be terrorized by somebody wanting immediate answers.
Nobody died yet from that set up.
So, I refresh my emails once or twice an hour manually.
As for phone calls, I don't drone on and I am out of the dating game.
So, no honey talk for hours or a nagging wife with unimportant $%&*
every few minutes.
Age has SOME benefits
Having only 1 bar of signal at the office even with WiFi would do the trick of killing the battery...I have all the background and other updating on WiFi only.
I don't have push notifications on for e-mails, but that is because I will not
be terrorized by somebody wanting immediate answers.
Nobody died yet from that set up.
So, I refresh my emails once or twice an hour manually.
As for phone calls, I don't drone on and I am out of the dating game.
So, no honey talk for hours or a nagging wife with unimportant $%&*
every few minutes.
Age has SOME benefits
The original inventors that were given the patent have all inventions and patents related to the auto industry and mechanics tools. All these law suits are getting ridiculous. You know you can get a patent on improving someone else's patent without having to pay royalties. Basically these guys patented an idea that a troll purchased and hopes to force actual companies that figure out out to put it to practice. Judge's have to start throwing **** like this out of court. The battery patent is so general and vague and even references it's use in cars.
I can practically guarantee prior art from at least one Popular Electronics battery charger article from (I think) the 1970's. I can't be arsed to actually dig through the issue indexes to find it, but I am quite sure that there was a charger project that monitored the charging current (or something) and adjusted the charging to taper. Sounds pretty much like what this patent claims to have invented.
One would think that would invalidate the patent right there.
One would think that would invalidate the patent right there.
Some patents Apple sued Samsung over infringing were more vague
I hope you realize that the methods noted in the patent can be applied across pretty much anything that uses a battery and charging system.
A car battery charges using the same basic principles as charging a cell phone or any other rechargeable battery platform.
This is why some patents can be enforced beyond their original scope.
This patent is about regulating the charging process.
Your assumptions regarding the back story on this patent are amusing.
Ever wondered why Apple fanboys never whine when Apple is suing for patent infringement? Where are all these 'elaborate' arguments when Samsung is slapped with hundreds of millions?
Regardless of our love for Apple, intellectual property laws are alive and well with us, all one can hope for is that may the best party win
There was a really good news program on NPR I think, or some podcast like This American Life, where they looked into the East Texas patent troll industry. There is an entire office building that no one works in, just addresses. They like to be there in East Texas, because the courts have a light workload. But basically, if it is filed there, it is a patent troll scam.
I don't see anything in the claims referencing automobiles. It's a patent about monitoring battery health. Cars have batteries, phones have batteries, pacemakers have batteries. This isn't a trademark where you need to declare a field of use.
Nonsense. Patents are not the end all, be all of innovation. Plenty of innovation is happening and not being patented at all. Are you suggesting that Apple would not have developed the iPhone or any number of other products if the patent system did not exist? Businesses don't need to be guaranteed a monopoly in order to bring products to market. While the pharma industry has gotten used to this privilege, it is not a reality in most industries or disciplines and IMHO shouldn't be for pharma either.
When things like the Windows start button and "boxes with words inside them" can become patents, there is clearly a problem. It is a shame that these patents have to be invalidated through the court system -- or worse that clearly invalid patents are upheld through the bizarre situation (dare I say corrupt?) involving the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. We really need to overhaul the system so that review panels can invalidate bogus patents, as well as discipline or retrain the patent examiners who awarded these in the first place.
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[doublepost=1468476629][/doublepost]My automotive battery charger that I've owned so long I cannot even remember what decade I bought it in has this feature. Sears should sue for infringement ...
Somaltus, LLC has filed a complaint against Apple today in an Eastern Texas district court, accusing the iPhone maker of infringing upon its 2010 patent related to complex battery technologies. The small Frisco, Texas-based firm also filed lawsuits against Asus, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba over the same patent.
The lawsuit claims that the iPhone 6s and any similar devices sold by Apple infringe upon U.S. Patent No. 7,657,386, titled "Integrated Battery Service System," and seeks unspecified monetary damages or, alternatively, a running royalty on sales of infringing devices from the time of judgment going forward.Specifically, it appears that the infringement claim at least partially relates to the iPhone's process of charging in fast-charge mode until the battery reaches 80% capacity, and then adjusting to trickle-charge mode above 80% capacity.Somaltus, LLC generally fits the description of a "patent troll," as it does not appear to provide any obvious products or services and lacks an easily identifiable online presence. Nevertheless, it has successfully reached out-of-court settlements with automakers like Ford and Nissan in the past in relation to the same particular patent.
The legal complaint's case number is 2:16-cv-00758 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Article Link: Apple Faces Patent Lawsuit Over iPhone's Battery Technologies
We have that already. It's called the Inter partes review (IPR), which is a process before a review panel by which anyone can challenge the validity of a patent. It was enacted in 2012. It works very quickly, and it is very very inexpensive when compared to district court litigation. Most judges will stay a case pending an IPR review. In the patent law field, we sometimes call it the patent death squad, as they have invalidated somewhere between 70% and 90% of what has been put before them, depending on how you measure.
It is really hard to be an examiner - they are very smart folks working under a tough schedule. Sometimes a patent is invalidated 10 years after it was granted. Should we punish an examiner from 10 years ago? What if he doesn't work at the patent office anymore?
There is absolutely no evidence to support this. EDTX is popular for a few reasons: (1) the judges know patent law very well, so the lawyers can spend less time educating them about the law; (2) because the judges know patent law well, the cases move quicker which saves both parties money; and (3) the population in EDTX is small, there is not much crime, so there is less chance of a civil case being put on the back burner while the judge deals with a criminal matter (this happens often in other courts).
There is evidence that EDTX judges are less likely to dismiss the cases early on, which plaintiffs like. However, for cases that go all the way to finality and don't settle, there is NO evidence that the outcomes in EDTX are any different than other courts. In the end, the results are on par with national averages and no party is benefited. There is certainly no evidence about them ruling patents valid more often, as you say.
Yes, Apple would not have developed the iPhone, in the form we use and love today, but for the patent system. Remember when Steve Jobs famously said, "and boy have we patented it" during the iPhone introduction? He didn't just say that for fun or laughs. That was a message to Apple's competitors: If you rip off our idea, we will come for you. And they did. Apple would not have invested as much as it did into R&D if it didn't have a reasonable assurance of exclusivity for a good period of time. Apple's competitors were forced not only to reverse engineer the iPhone, which they did quickly, but also to carefully thread the needle and design around all of Apple's patents. That second part took a lot longer.
As for pharma, do you know how easy it is to copy a drug? I have done work with this industry, it's crazy fast. Their product is essentially just a molocule, very easy to copy. Pharmaceutical manufacturers in India are making the active ingredient in new drugs before those drugs are even approved by the FDA. There are generics that can be ready to go on day 0. The only thing stopping them are patents. Why would a branded pharmaceutical spend many billions developing a drug, testing it, making it safe, getting it through the regulatory approval process, educating doctors about it, and educating the public of it's benefits, if a generic could just copy it and uncut the price? Why bother investing all that time, money, and effort? We would not have so many of the life-saving and live-improving drugs we have today but for the patent system. Thing about all the drugs we benefit from for which patents have expired? We wouldn't have acetaminophen if J&J didn't have those incentives and protections in place.
Those things have never been patented. Patent claims so much more complex and nuanced than that.
That the court's job. That's like saying, it is a shame that these cars have to be fixed in a mechanics auto shop.
Although not approved until 2010, this patent has a priority date of 2002. (Although I could swear charging methods like this existed before even then.)
As a side note, the original patent assignee was Snap-On, a very well respected tool company.
It's for any battery. What you might've read was that Somaltus sued five major automobile makers last year, and they ALL settled out of court.
Looking at just the filing titles in this case against Apple, it appears that Apple might've done the same thing already. Not worth fighting a patent that is so basic and validated by default by other major companies.
Filing someplace hopefully friendly to your case, is just the smart thing to do. Apple does that all the time in California.
Shell offices are also common. Like the way Apple keeps an office in Ireland to avoid European taxes. And the way Apple keeps an office in Reno, to avoid paying California taxes. Or keeping shell companies in Delaware so they can quietly file for trademarks ahead of a product launch.
As for why some people think patent holders are only out to sue, that's because Apple apparently has a policy of not paying royalties when asked. They prefer to wait until they're sued.
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agreed! The RC community has been using charges for hi current/capacity Lithiums for years now and they basically do the same thing...rapid charge to a percent of full, then trickle charge as a top off measure to prevent over charging and excess heat with a potentially full batt pack... to my knowledge, ALL Lithium based (Ion, Polymer, Air, Sulfur) battery technology is handled the same way...
I thought the lawsuit names the iPhone 6S, which hasn't been out that long.
Yes, it's now easier to ask for costs if a patentee's lawsuit is determined to be frivolous or harassment or similar kind of non-serious infringement accusation.
That should help prevent lawsuits with zero or low merit.
It wouldn't stop this case, since some major companies have already settled with Somaltus over the patent, which lends credence to its validity.
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