9.28.2012

WIPS Global Advanced : special feature 01:Search

Worldwide Patent Information Online Service WIPS Global Advanced
User friendly UI that considers the convenience of users and exclusive analyzing functions enable various works on the web including patent search and analysis of technology and related facts.
Here is what the special features of WIPS Global Advanced. The categories are Search, Review, My folder, Monitoring, Statistics & Analysis and Producing Information. This is how to use the Search function and features.

General Search
-Optimized the patent search environment by offering various and exclusive search fields
-Search Type : Integrated Search / Advanced Search / Step Search / Number Search
- Additional Functions : Query Matching Board, Error Check, Setting output items out of searched results, supporting various search field operators, etc.
- Search Result view : offers in such types like List, Block and Drawing
Check these views blow

Theme Search

Family Search : Quickly patent document using the search terms and keywords for family patents. And also able to quickly figure the present conditions of domestic/overseas patent applications of competitors and enables establishing patent strategies for each nation.

Citation Search : This search can quickly and easily search Forward/Backward Citation through integrated citation information of patents from Korea, the US, Japan and European countries.

Company Search : Users can search patent document of an applicant for a patent without omissions by making a representative name for the information of affiliated companies or applicants written in various forms. And this search can conveniently figures the trends of competitors' patent applications which can be enabled continuous monitoring of competitor patent portfolios.

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Samsung faces domestic patent lawsuit

Samsung faces domestic patent lawsuit

By Song Jung-a in Seoul

flickr.com | by benmarvin |Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

LG and Samsung’s Patent lawsuit is getting serious.

Samsung, had been targeted by Apple in many courts over patent issues with mobile design, and now faces another lawsuit on Thursday a patent infringement lawsuit against the huge domestic rival electronic company LG.

Source article : http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c55cf070-088b-11e2-b57f-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=published_links/rss/companies_technology/feed//product#axzz27jIjhLpm

Rabito Bunny, Becomes the World No.1 iPhone Case(1)

It took only a year for Rabito bunny iPhone case to gain its popularity all around the world. The Company elaborately practices IP protection system in addition to its whimsical design.Let’s hear the Rabito’s IP management story with representative designer Mina Kwak and the company’s special advisor, IP attorney Youngdu Kim.

Rabito’s IP protection

Q: You have various designs and trademark properties under the name of Rabito. Tell us some related episodes if you have any.

Mina: “The design lost its novelty”
When I just started the business, there was one time I almost lost my design right. I tried to file the rabbit cell phone case application for design registration before I commercialize the products. I requested the application process to a patent law firm before I left for the Spain exhibition. However, the law firm had not started the application process until after the exhibition because the exhibition was held during the Korean Thanksgiving week. The law firm did not try to stop the application process. But, I was so frustrated about losing my design right. I asked for advice from the other patent attorney, Youngdu Kim, whom I have known for years.

©Rabito/ Rabito official website

Kim: "Non-prejudicial disclosures"
I suggested not making any controversial dispute because the products are to be commercialized. It is true that the design had been disclosed in the exhibition before the application process. Also, examiners could have decided the design to lose its novelty. However, less than 6 month period had passed after publication, which was short enough to try the non-prejudicial disclosures1) instead of pushing the application process. It would have been difficult to fully exercise her design right if her design was invalidated due to the loss of novelty.

©Rabito/ Rabito official website

Q: Is Rabito has any IP protection process?

Kim: "By product Life-cycling strategy "
At the stage of development, I give the prior consultation after designers create prototype or concept. If the products are going to be in the market, we discuss which IP right (among design, trademark, and patent rights) works the best. Once we get the measure, we try to register or at least start the application process before the release. The registration process is to be based on the release strategy. During the application process, we use either the secret design system2) or the preferential/accelerated examination system3) based on its release date and location. After launching, we put emphasis on design right management and prepare the litigation or imitations.

Mina: "Registered at the Customs"
We registered Rabito trademark at the customs to restrict imports of copies. Therefore, customs would contact us if anyone tries to import copies. We were able to register Rabito products to the customs because we owned design and trademark right.

Rabito Kipris Search Result

To be Continued.

1) Exception of a loss of novelty: If a design owned by a person entitled to design registration is publicly known, worked, or described in the Republic of Korea or foreign country and the person files the application for the design within six months of the date on which the design was publicly know, worked or published, etc., it is deemed not to lose novelty. (Source: KIPO)

2) An applicant may request the design to be kept confidential for a period of three years from the date upon which it is registered or protected. (Source: KIPO)

3) An applicant may request accelerated examination in case an invention has been commercially worked by a person other than the applicant, after his application has been laid-open or incase the application is stipulated in the Presidential decree and regarded as urgent. (Source: KIPO)

* This posting is restructured based on ‘Design Map’ by Korean Intellectual Property Office.

9.27.2012

Michael Jackson’s Patent, Anti Gravity Lean dance shoes

Michael Jackson

One of Michael Jackson moves that all of his fans always been fascinated by is what he performed in the “Smooth Criminal” video, which known as “The Anti-Gravity Illusion”. WIPS, Korea patent Online Search Company, found out with WIPS DB that Michael Jackson had his own patent. Patent number 5255452, filed in 1992, shows how Michael Jackson and his dancers could lean at 45-degree angles during live performances of the song “Smooth Criminal”. The dance named 'lean dance' had special technique and actually had a secret in dancing shoes. Michael Jackson invented this shoes with V shape heel, straps around ankle and stage setting, and applied for a patent.

WIPS Global Korea Patent Company

Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion

Find our more about this shoes patent here

Inventors: Michael J. Jackson, Michael L. Bush, Dennis Tompkins

Original Assignee: Triumph International, Inc.
Primary Examiner: M. Denise Patterson
Current U.S. Classification: 36/113; 36/1; 36/80; 36/132; 36/136
International Classification: A43B 500; A43B 300

9.26.2012

WIPS Patent Online service

patent korea search

WIPS is Korea’s first company to offer on-line worldwide patent information service. Since starting the business in 1999, the service is being used by over 3,000 companies, patent law firms, academics, governments, and R&D centers including top Korean global companies and multinationals. With over 100,000 users worldwide, WIPS has kept the number 1 spot in Korea with largest market share for over 12 yrs term. In 2011, WIPS achieved 62% market share.

WIPS Oline Products

	WIPS Global Advanced (WGA) is an online patent information service for patent experts. It offers various search and analysis functions such as patent family, citation, and Company searches on major patents worldwide.
	Korean patent information service in Japanese. PATBRIDGE offers the full text of Korean patent data in Japanese. It enables Japanese customers to search Korean patent information their native language for a more efficient & faster way.
	ThinKlear is a support tool for editing an analyzing patent information with an improved degree of freedom for users. Offered as software, this additional service can be used in various ways including analyzing or making a report on patent information.

WIPS Service

IP Analysis Using WIPS' database, along with relevant 3rd part databases the patent analysis service of WIPS reads trend of technology, patents applied, and technology distribution in the relevent field according to the specific needs of customers.

R&D Strategy By planning suitable technology to future market trends for customers through multi-dimensional searches and an analyzing system at an initial stage of R&D, the R&D strategy and consulting service of WIPS increases the possibility of having successful R&D.

Technology Commercialization WIPS evaluates the validity of commercialization toward business items and R&D results. WIPS offers consulting sercices at each stage of commercialization depending on type of business.

Weekly Korean IP Headlines 9.25.12

We will touch on the latest Korean IP news headlines from WIPS Global blog. As experts expected last week, the war between Samsung and Apple is getting worse. Let’s take a look at what else is going on.

flickr.com | by NS Newsflash

On September 18th, The Verge reported Samsung's argument against Apple after trial loss. According to the article, Samsung is trying to gain the public agreement through online strategy. Check out for the details here, if you want to know more about Samsung’s next strategy against Apple.

On 19th, Engadget reported that “LG gets patent for mobile UI that reacts to flexible displays, encourages origami.” The article cites LG got a US patent for a 2008-era UI invention that would use a flexible display to its advantage. Check out LG’s new technology here.

Several major media reported Samsung is set to add iPhone5 to U.S. lawsuits against Apple on September 20th. According to the quote, “Samsung anticipates that it will file a motion to amend its infringement contentions to add the iPhone5 as an accused product.” The article says that Samsung expects that “the iPhone 5 infringe the asserted Samsung patents-in-suit in the same way as the other accused iPhone models.” Check out more details about next war between Samsung and Apple here.

On September 21st, The Korea Times reported that LG Display will benefit from the Apple-Samsung lawsuit. Latest new iPhone cannot help using LG Display instead of using Samsung display because of the Apple’s ongoing trial against Samsung. As a result, LG became the one of main suppliers of Apple. Check out how LG became the main supplier of Apple and how Apple benefitted them here.

On 24th, Intellectual Property Watch published the interview with Ho-Won Kim, the newly appointed commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). In this interview, Kim discussed about his views on KIPO’s major policies in a recent exchange and his future goal for the KIPO. Check out the full interview here.

Intellectual property watch and AP reported on the same day, a UN sanctions committee declared that WIPO did not violate UN sanctions on North Korea when it shipped computers and equipment to the country as technical assistance. Click here.

9.25.2012

Patent Issue : TiVo and verizon patent lawsuits

patent korea search

It has been decided that Verizon will pay TiVo $250 million to license its digital video recording technology and settle a patent lawsuit with TiVo. The two companies, TiVo and Verizon, agreed to dismiss all pending litigation and also these companies will be combined distribution of streaming video services through Redbox. Also this deal includes a cross-licensing arrangement that all patents which were involved in the pending dispute between Verizon and TiVo.

The Associated Press said that Verizon will pay TiVo $100 million in cash up front and will then pay the additional $150.4 million in quarterly payments until the summer of 2018. It will also be required to pay licensing fees for “each of its DVR subscribers above a certain level,” the AP said.

The article,Verizon agrees to pay TiVo over $250million to settle patent litigation , says that this is another win for TiVo. TiVo had won earlier to forced AT&T to pay the company $215 million over the next seven years. Also TiVo had earlier secured $500 million from Dish, and recently announced that Microsoft had dropped its lawsuit and ITC complaint against the company. Read More

WIPS takes the first step to globalization from Singapore

WIPS opened an office in Singapore to target Asian market on September 21st. The office will provide total IP services include WIPS Global Advanced (WIPS online search service), Patent research, consulting, technology exchange and IP education.

<From left to right, Jinyoung Lee, Hyungchil Lee (Chairman),

Allen Yeo (Singapore branch manager), Dae Rhee>

9.24.2012

ZIPI Racing, first online game with Disney&Pixar Intellectual Property

ZIPI Racing

CJ E&M NetMarble announced that an online casual race game ‘ZIPI racing’ will be tested on 21. This online game, ZIPI Racing, developed by ZIPI studio and CJ E&M, and is a casual racing game with characters from Disney and Pixar. This is the first case of using Disney and Pixar IP (Intellectual Property) for an online game.

Lineage

Baram

There are other online games with IP(Intellectual Property). Lineage by NC Soft and Baram from NEXCON has already successfully got many users and these online games are more popular than original comic series. Many other online game companies adopt IP(Intellectual Property) and try to be these famous online games. But even if with IP(Intellectual Property), they have risk to take, too. There will be lots of IP cost and development expense, not all of games with IP are making success. For adopting IP to make new online game, the concept and connection between original stories and game gerne will be the most concern should take.

9.21.2012

Patent Conference : Patent War 2012

	Patent War 2012
Subject	글로벌 특허전쟁, 그 끝이 안 보인다?
When	2012년 9월 18일(화) 09:00 – 17:20
Where	코엑스 그랜드볼룸 103호
Organizer
Support
Sponsor
Events	세미나 9세션 , 이슈토크쇼, 특허분쟁 상담부스 등

Last Tuesday, the Patent War 2012 was held at COEX, Seoul.
This conference was hosted by etnews and KIPRA. Because of Samsung and Apple's patent cases issues, lots of companies were attended to this events. WIPS also had a presentation speech and consult booth.

At 10 am, Young-Min, Kim from KIPO (Korea Intellectual Property Office) gave congratulatory message. Also a patent agent Woo-sung, Jung gave Keyword Speech about 'Samsung and Apple patent issues' and the seminar officially started.

WIPS had booth display events, too. We could meet lots of people who were interested in our services and WINTELIPS program. We had great time with our clients and consults with them.
For the last presentation, Eun-Young, Park from WIPS gave a speech 'Samsung vs. Apple Patent Analysis Cases'. The patent issues arose a lot this year, especially because of Samsung and Apple patent fights in many countries. For this reason, WIPS took a look with online Patent search service for experts (WINTELIPS), analyse the portfolio of two companies.

This conference was very valuable with many patent experts and their views in different ways about patent suits. We were also pleasure to meet many companies and people in this fields, and thank you for the interests in our online patent search system WINTELIPS.

9.20.2012

Google’s Motorola Mobility goes patent lawsuits against Apple

flickr.com | by William Hook |
ttribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CCBY-SA 2.0)

It seems after Samsung-Apple patent wars, Google’s Motorola Mobility goes next patent lawsuits against Apple Inc. U.S. trade agency will investigate the case of Google Inc. and Apple Inc. mobile devices including Siri voice recognition program. The complaint of Google’s Motorola Mobility unit has been filed officially on Aug 17 and the agency announced it by posting on their website, the U.S. International Trade Commission said.

The new Apple patent lawsuit puts emphasis on the OS X/iOS instant messaging application iMessage, which Motorola argues violates a patent for an instant messaging system.

And the article also said that Motorola mobility hopes to negotiate a cross licensing, the companies haven’t solve the licensing issue since at least 2010. It looks they have more fights to go. Apple Inc’s opinion is that Motorola Mobility demands royalties of the retail price for every device to much, the article said. For more details, click this link

'Ironman,' the World of the Exoskeleton Robot

Batman, Ironman and Captain America have something in common. They all were average human who became heroes by the help of technology and science.

Ironman Official Poster/ Marvel

Last May, a paralyzed English woman named Claire Lomas finished the London Marathon. It took her 16 days to complete the Marathon with the help of a robotic exoskeleton suit. According to ‘The Telegraph,’ she was the first person to complete any marathon using an exoskeleton robot, ‘Rewalk.’

Claire Lomas/ Guadian

Through development of technology and science, people look forward to emerging robotic technology for human life. Among various kinds of robots, this posting will cover the exoskeleton robot.

What is the exoskeleton robot? You can easily imagine the bionic suit of ‘Iron Man.’ In this film, Tony Stark fights against villains with his exoskeleton robot (its appearance is fancier than the Batman’s whole black suit).

The History of the Exoskeleton Robot

The concept of the exoskeleton robot is not new to us. According to the ‘Popular Science’ megazine, the first concept of the exoskeleton robot appeared in 1890. It was the mechanical suit designed to help the patients to walk. Yet the first scientific approach started at the year of 1963. In 1966, General Electric visualized the exoskeleton robot, called Hardiman. However, it was merely a figurative sculpture due to the limitation of scientific technology at that time.

Hardiman/ Popular Science

The research on the exoskeleton robot continued. In 1987, the U.S. researchers started to study the life suit for the paralyzed people. Then in 1990, Japan started to research on the walking assist suit.

Current researches of the exoskeletons are mainly focusing on medical assist. Recent famous cases of commercialized robots are ‘HAL-5’ of Japan and ‘Rewalk’ of Israel.

The use of each exoskeleton robot varies. Researchers keep developing and trying to commercialize the exoskeleton robots.

Military

HULC

HULC/Lockheed Martin

HULC (Human Universal Load Carrier) was created by the University of California, Berkeley Robotics and human engineering lab. HULC was designed for soldiers. This battery powered exoskeleton robot weighs only 52lb. HULC carries up to 200 lb at a top speed of 10 miles per hour. It is a wearable robot that helps soldiers to walk, run, crawl, and kneel down in the combat field.

XOS2/Raytheon

XOS2

The XOS was originally designed and developed by Sarcos for military purposes. After Raytheon took over the company, they announced the developed version XOS2 in 2007. The XOS2 easily carries 200lb cargo over long distances. ‘Time’ introduced such outstanding performances of XOS2. Raytheon is planning to build the complete commercialized XOS2 by 2015.

Medical Assist

HAL/Cyberdyne Rewalk/Argo Medical Tech

HAL5
HAL-5 (Hybrid Assisted Limb) is a robot created by Cyberdyne Company in Japan. It can supplement and reinforce one’s physical capability. HAL catches biosignals of the user through a sensor attached on his or her skin. Based on those signals, the power unit is moves its joint in harmony with the wearer’s muscle movement.

Rewalk
Rewalk is a commercialized walking assist robot by Argo Medical Technologies in Israel. It helps people who are paralyzed from the waist down to move without help. It enables patients to walk, sit-down and stand, and climb up the stairs.

Industrial Use

Walking Asisst Robot/Honda

Honda’s Robot
This is the walking assist device created based on Honda Asimo’s robotic technology. The device is designed to reduce the strain of walking. It improves worker’s job performance by strengthening the muscular strength.

The Future of Exoskeleton Robot

The exoskeleton robot is receiving attention as an alternative way of artificial intelligence. Do you think the exoskeleton robot will replace artificial intelligence? Can you imagine bionic people around us? I mean, people like Tony Stark walking around us? Can this exoskeletons stretch the limitation of our bodies and imaginations?