Your Source for the Latest Patent Information
Add to My Yahoo!
marker  User Functions
marker  Categories
marker  Archives
marker  Search
marker  Syndication
What is RSS? RSS 0.92: RSS 1.0: RSS 2.0: Atom:










marker  Credits

       
Start Stop
START or STOP receiving GEN-ERIC Patent News
  *Home*     Links  
GEN-ERIC Patent News
Your Source for the Latest Patent Information

02/13/07

7,177,829 Tax refund system
  Issued: February 13, 2007
  Filed: July 16, 1999
  U.S. Class: 705/31
Abstract:  
A tax refund system is disclosed in which in exchange for a taxpayer assigning all or a portion of his or her tax refund, a participating provider provides to the taxpayer a spending vehicle with buying power at participating outlets. Tax return data for an individual's tax return is processed by the IRS. A taxpayer consents to using a portion of the tax return data to acquire a spending vehicle from a financial institution of the taxpayer's choosing. Using a portion of the tax return data, the IRS arranges to electronically transfer an amount related to the taxpayer's refund to an account at the financial institution selected by the taxpayer. A taxpayer then receives a spending vehicle such as a credit, debit, or cash card, spending account, coupon, or rebate from a financial institution or other spending vehicle provider such as a retailer, service provider, wholesaler, distributor, or entertainment entity.

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 11:25:59 am into the following categories: Patents of the Day


02/13/07

7,176,367 Pen instrument with controllable whistle
  Issued: February 13, 2007
  Filed: November 1, 2004
  U.S. Class: 84/380R
Abstract:  
A pen instrument is provided with a controllable whistle. The whistle includes a tubular body; a sleeve connected at a rear end to a first open end of the tubular body and at a front end to a rear end of the pen instrument to connect the whistle to the pen instrument; a whistle-producing reed structure fixedly provided in an inner space of the tubular body and including a reed; and a cut-off device provided at a predetermined position on the tubular body and operable by a user to allow or cut off flowing of air through the inner space of the tubular body. A balloon is connected to a second open end of the tubular body and inflated when the cut-off device is in a position allowing air to flow through the tubular body into the balloon.

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 11:25:31 am into the following categories: Patents of the Day


02/13/07

7,177,623 Localized cellular awareness and tracking of emergencies
  Issued: February 13, 2007
  Filed: July 1, 2004
  U.S. Class: 455/404.2
Abstract:  
A method of initiating a telecommunication connection between a wireless 911 caller, an emergency 911 dispatcher, and at least one emergency personnel, including identifying a geographical location of a wireless 911 caller; identifying at least one emergency personnel located proximal to the geographical location of the wireless 911 caller; and initiating a telecommunication connection between each of the wireless 911 caller, an emergency 911 dispatcher, and the at least one emergency personnel.

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 11:24:58 am into the following categories: Patents of the Day


02/13/07
Posted by GEN-ERIC at 08:28:02 am into the following categories: OG Notice Links


02/13/07
Posted by GEN-ERIC at 08:25:45 am into the following categories: OG Notice Links


02/13/07

Flies, like airplanes, have gyroscopes to control their flight patterns. Now a collaborative group of researchers from Case Western Reserve University and the University of Washington have found for the first time that a moth's antennae can act like an airplane's gyroscope to stabilize its flight. Sanjay Sane, a biologist from the University of Washington and lead author of this week's Science article, "Antennal Mechanosensors Mediate Flight Control in Moths," collaborated with Case biologist Mark Willis, in studying the large moth Manduca sexta (tobacco hornworm moth) to unravel how it controls it flight in an effort to build a new generation of flying robots.

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 02:21:06 am into the following categories: In The News


02/13/07

Sanofi-Aventis SA, France's biggest pharmaceutical company, and Canadian drugmaker QLT Inc. agreed to pay a total of $157.5 million to end a patent suit so they can continue to sell the prostate cancer drug Eligard. TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc., a joint venture of Abbott Laboratories and Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd., sued QLT and Sanofi in 2003, claiming that Eligard infringed a TAP patent. QLT will pay $112.5 million and Sanofi will pay $45 million, according to a statement issued today by QLT. U.S. sales from 2002, when the drug was approved by regulators, to April 2006, when the TAP patent expired, were more than $170 million, QLT Chief Executive Officer Bob Butchofsky said. Sanofi sells the drug and QLT gets royalties of up to 20 percent. The settlement covers that patent and any future patents TAP might own that claims to cover the drug.

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 02:05:37 am into the following categories: In The News


02/13/07

Progressive Gaming International Corp. (PGIC.O: Quote, Profile , Research), a supplier of slot machines and other casino games, said on Friday it plans to seek a reversal of a $39 million award in a lawsuit accusing it of attempted monopolization in 1998 and 1999. The Las Vegas-based company, once known as Mikohn Gaming Corp., said a jury awarded the plaintiff $13 million for his claims and that the amount will be tripled under applicable law. It said the case was filed in 2002 in response to a patent infringement case the company filed four years earlier. Progressive said it will try to have the verdict set aside, and, if necessary, appeal. It does not expect the award to hurt its cash position in fiscal 2007 and does not expect the case to end until at least 2008.

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 02:04:30 am into the following categories: In The News


02/13/07

British pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline will pay $35 million to settle a 2-year-old lawsuit over its antidepressant Wellbutrin. Drugmaker Watson Pharmaceuticals said Monday that GSK has agreed to pay $35 million up front in exchange for a royalty-bearing license for a patent covering Wellbutrin. In December 2005, Andrx Corp. filed a patent infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court against GSK that alleged the company's Wellbutrin antidepressant infringed on a patent owned by Andrx.

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 02:03:35 am into the following categories: In The News


02/13/07

Royal Philips Electronics (AEX:PHI; NYSE:PHG) announced today that in a patent infringement case between Philips Electronics and CD-Recordable and CD-Re-writable disc manufacturers including Princo and Gigastorage, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled positively in granting a general exclusion order prohibiting the unlicensed importation into the United States of recordable and rewritable compact discs that infringe any of the six patents asserted by Philips. Philips welcomes this positive step in its continuous effort to stop the import of illegal CD-R/RW discs into the US, which creates unfair competition in the recordable disc market. Philips filed this case with the ITC in 2002 seeking to prevent unlicensed CD-R and CD-RW discs from entering the United States. The ITC had found in March 2004 that six Philips patents were valid and infringed by the manufacturers, but also determined that the patents were unenforceable because of patent misuse. After Philips appealed the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) held that the ITC's legal analysis was incorrect and remanded the case to the ITC for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 02:01:46 am into the following categories: In The News


02/13/07

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld the dismissal of the patent infringement lawsuit filed by Medtronic against BrainLAB AG in 1998.
The appellate court affirmed a previous district court ruling that BrainLAB image-guided surgery and radiotherapy products do not infringe any of the patents in suit. In February 2006, the US District Court in Denver, Colorado, dismissed Medtronic's patent infringement lawsuit, finding that BrainLAB products do not infringe any of Medtronic's patents in suit. The district court concluded that a September 2005 jury verdict, where the jury found that BrainLAB infringed four patents held or licensed by Medtronic and awarded Medtronic US$51 million, was in error and not supported by the evidence. Medtronic has the possibility to appeal to the US Supreme Court. "We are pleased that the Court of Appeals has affirmed the district court ruling in this case. The court has confirmed that BrainLAB imaging technology does not infringe the patents in suit and we look forward to further developing our surgical navigation business," commented Stefan Vilsmeier, founder and CEO of BrainLAB.

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 01:52:40 am into the following categories: In The News


02/13/07

The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts has ruled in favor of Genlyte Thomas Group LLC, a subsidiary of The Genlyte Group Inc., in a patent infringement suit against Arch Lighting Group Inc. and its Arch Lighting Systems division. A jury decided that a line of Taunton, Mass.-based Arch Lighting Systems' hospital-room lighting products infringed on one of Genlyte Thomas Group's patents, according to a news release from Louisville-based Genlyte (NASDAQ: GLYT), which manufactures lighting fixtures and related products for the commercial, industrial and residential markets. The court awarded damages of $238,000 and required Arch Lighting Systems to pay Genlyte a per-fixture royalty of $67 for every product sold since Sept. 30, 2006.

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 01:50:52 am into the following categories: In The News


marker  Calendar
February 2007
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
<<  <   >  >>
      1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28        
marker  Links