Samsung and google, signed for cross-licensing!

Samsung and Google signed on broad cross licensing agreement 
which allows both sides to have access to each other’s patent portfolio, 

as well as patents will be filed in next 10 years.

This cross licensing covering range is broad, from technology to business field in general, 
and this seems to be an important reinforcement for Samsung  in patent litigation with Apple.

Flickr.com (Robert Scoble)

 Last 2011, Google acquired Motorola to have a access to patents owned by Motorola.

Motorola was a leading player in the initial phone manufacturing market, 
owned various cell phone related patents. 
By reaching this agreement, Samsung can use all these patents now.

Flickr.com (Stereopoly Blog)

Samsung extended licensing agreement with Microsoft in 2011, and extended licensing deal with Nokia as well in last year. Samsung’s licensing partner list does not end here, 
it includes IBM, Kodak, Intellectual Ventures, and Inter digital too.

Flickr.com (toprankonlinemarketing)

Google has been an ally with Samsung rather than a foe. Google supported Samsung indirectly, heuristics patent of Apples, so called Jobs patent, was invalidated in court last time, it was due to retrial application by Google. In addition to this, Google supported Samsung through many ways, such as providing legal advice, investigation of materials, securing evidences, and etc.

Flick.com (John Karaktsanis)

By signing this cross licensing, it is expected now that Google got a big potential to develop its own device technology of android operating system by applying its patent technologies to Samsung’s hardware products, such as Samsung mobile, Smart TV, and etc.

Samsung said in their statement, this cross licensing “would lead to deeper collaboration on research and development of current and future projects.”, and its counterpart from Google also agreed, 

“By working together on agreement like this, 
companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation.”

Flickr.com (osde8info)

This collaboration seems to bring multiple benefits to both patent giants, not only in reducing the possibility of being embroiled in patent disputes, but also in improvement of related technology.  As Samsung stated, “Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes”, World Smartphone No.1 player Samsung and Software & Search field leading player Google, hope two big giants’ collaboration will influence whole industry in a positive way.

Mobile game ‘Candy Crush Saga’, Candy is trademarked now!

In Korea, mobile game ‘Candy Crush Saga’ became rapidly popular among smartphone users once it is linked with ‘Kakaotalk’. Many people downloaded it in their smartphones, 

and it is not difficult to see people playing it in the subway or in their spare times. 

‘Candy Crush Saga’ has millions of fans not only in Korea，around the world.

King.com

Last year February, ‘King’, videogame maker of ‘Candy Crush Saga’, filed an application of ‘Candy’ trademark for game and clothing. US trademark office approved the filing of ‘King’, last month 15th. 

Albeit US trademark office approved it, people can file an objection for 1 month from 15^th 

as time left till it will be published.

This approval put other game developer companies in obstinate predicament, game developers who has used ‘Candy’ word in their applications were forced to change the title of games or need to prove 

that they did not infringe upon ‘candy’ trademark.

USPTO.gov

Actually application developer companies already got a notice via Apple telling that they infringed upon ‘Candy’ trademark of ‘King’. Notice requested that they need to stop the service infringing upon ‘Candy’ trademark, or they need to prove that they did not infringe upon it. 

This notice initiated many game developers’ opposition.  

candycrushsaga.com

Benney Hsu, game developer of ‘All Candy Casino Slot’, addressed that this notice makes many game developer frustrated and annoyed. He insisted that contents of games are different, but only because they are involving candy word and now it becomes trademark infringement.  They asserted that ‘Candy’ is a very common word, as it is being used in sweet manufacturing business to be differentiated from other merchandises, not from other products.

Flickr.com(MeLY3o)

However, ‘King’ contended that “‘All Candy Casino Slot’ was a calculated attempt to use other companies’ IP to enhance its own games, through means such as search rankings.” 

And “is likely lead to customer confusion and damage our brand”.

King has been actively taking actions against other game companies which are deemed to be infringing upon its IP rights since last year, by filing a suit or by other means, 

thus King seems to gain even more momentum by this ‘Candy’ being trademarked.    

In Korea, ‘Anipang 2’, smartphone game released not long time ago, is embroiled in a controversy that it copied ‘Candy Crush Saga’. Currently King established a corporate body to provide a service linked with ‘Kakaotalk’ in Korea, so now people’s interest is focusing on how King will react to this.

corp.sundaytoz.com

Protection of IR rights owner is important, of course, however, many things require careful consideration in this debate. Revenue of ‘Candy Crush Saga’ is about 1 million US dollar per day, despite of it being free download game, and it is not difficult to infer from that this game is brining huge profit to King and Apple.

Protection of legitimate IP rights and very common word ‘Candy’ being trademarked which might hide the underlying motive of pursuing economic profit, 

drawing a certain line between being legitimate and being reasonable seems to provoke furious debates. 

And this is why King’s response in the future is a hot potato which we should pay more attention.

Excuses for Not Obtaining Copyright Permission(From www.copyrightlaws.com)

Today, WIPS read a very interesting and witty article, I would like to share it with more people, so I brought the article from 'www.copyrightlaws.com'.

Source:
http://www.copyrightlaws.com/libraries/excuses-for-not-obtaining-copyright-permission/

8 Excuses for Not Getting Copyright Permission

We have all heard excuses for not obtaining copyright permission prior to using a copyright-protected work. We may even have uttered some of the excuses set out below. Do you have a favorite excuse or one not mentioned below? Please share it by adding a comment at the end of this post.

I found it online.

• Not all online content is in the public domain. Always assume that online content is protected by copyright.

I was in a hurry.

• Nothing in copyright law allows use without permission just because the consumer/user is in a hurry and must get a document to print or to include content in slides.

My boss told me to copy it.

• If your boss didn’t provide you with a written warranty that s/he will be liable if you get caught infringing, this may be the time to stand up to your boss.

I’ll never get caught.

• So you know you should be obtaining permission. Everyone thinks they will never get caught…until they do.

It’s for education.

• Not all uses for educational purposes fall within an exception in copyright law.

It’s for internal use.

• Whether you are using content internally or publicly, you still need to obtain permission from the copyright owner.

It has a Creative Commons license.

• A CC license does not mean free; the content is subject to the terms and conditions in the CC license – read the license and see what’s allowed.

I emailed, called, faxed and snail mailed the copyright owner but never received a reply.

• This does not exonerate you from copyright liability. Unless the copyright owner provides permission, you may not legally use the content. 

Motorola Modular Smartphone project ‘Ara’

Global Cell phone manufacturer Motorola announced a project ‘Ara’ last year.

Ara project aims for developing free hardware flat form, all smartphone will be completely modular, customer can choose every components, such as display, keyboard, battery, camera, and etc. 

Final product would reflect 100% customer’s preference.

@http://motorola-blogspot.kr/2013/10/goodbye-sticky-hello-ara.html

@http://motorola-blogspot.kr/2013/10/goodbye-sticky-hello-ara.html

Motorola has been working on this project for already 1 year, 

and is planning to collaborate with modular smartphone concept ‘Phoneblocks’. 

Phoneblocks front side @ en.wikipedia.org

Motorola announced that prototype of Ara is pretty close 

and components will be on sales at ‘Moto Maker store’ website.

We assumed that Motorola owns related patents portfolio, so WIPS tried to search related patents using WIPS Global service but could not find them. Actually modular smartphone related patents were already developed by ‘Modu’ and its patents rights were transferred to Google.

Granted number of below patent is ‘8180395’, and title is “Modular wireless communicator”.

representative drawing @wipsglobal.com

We searched family patents, and it turns out to be 135 cases in total, 

including 73 cases in US and 1 case in Korea.

Family status of US 8180395 @wipsglobal.com

What the volume of family patents indicates? Filing patents costs lots of money, and if the patent owner want to maintain its right, cost grows even higher. So it is easy to tell that patent with more family is equivalent to greater economic value. If the value can be created from the patent is not big enough to offset easily the cost of maintaining it, nobody would file a family patent.

As we can see from above patent distribution map of WIPS Global, this patent owns many family patents, expected to have big market potential.

Let’s wait and see what kind of revolution modular smartphone will bring to 

current competitive smartphone market!

Patent of Smartphone Attachable Lens-Style Camera

As smartphone market grows, development of peripheral devices technologies is rapid as well. 

One of the representative technology is ‘Smartphone Attachable Lens-Style Camera’,

 and SONY seems to be a leading player with its own camcorder and camera technologies.

 

QX series @sony.co.kr

However, despite of its high quality, price is quite high as well, it makes customers definitely hesitate before they press the ‘purchase’ button. Recently, ‘Altek(altek.com.tw)’, 

digital camera ODM company released new product called ‘Cubic’, 

and it makes customer’s heart flutter again with much less burden in terms of price.

Cubic@ Altek.com.tw.cubic

As you can see from the above picture, it is one of the smallest and lightest products, 

also did not forget to have great functions including 13,000,000 pixels, full HD function, and etc. 

Surprisingly, it costs no more than 100 USD.

With such a rapid development, smartphone camera might overtake digital camera someday. 

Let’s take a look of related patent.

Title of the most recent patent on Smartphone Attachable Lent-style camera disclosed in USPTO is 

“Image Modifying Assembly for Smart Devices”, Assignee name is ‘Richard Brough’, 

and disclosed on December 12, 2013. Patent number is 2013-0331148.

Representative drawing of above patent @wipsglobal.com

This patent is about assembly for smart devices such as lens-style camera or smartphones, 

and its components include adapter, case, clamping portion, and etc. 

Core part of this patent seems to be locking device called ‘clamping’.

Patent is a direct indicator which helps us observe current development stage of cutting edge technology, WIPS will keep introducing interesting technology and patents to you through our blog. 

What kind of new technologies will surprise us in the future, let’s wait and see! 

WIPS IP Education center, will conduct New technology education business for Korea Patent Office!

Today we have a very exiting news! 

WIPS IP education center is selected to conduct ‘New technology education business’ for Korea Patent office!

Applause.. :) 

Purpose of this project is to provide best & customized education for Korea Patent Office examiners. This project is a long term project, from 1^st of January, 2014 till 31^st of December, 2016.

There have been many difficulties to get selected for this government project, we believe that know-how and expertise WIPS has accumulated through many years prove that WIPS is the best qualified one.

Hope WIPS can bring you more good news in 2014! :)

(Above website is Korean website of WIPS IP Education Center.)

Patent trend analysis of 3D printing

Last February in 2013, World Economic Forum mentioned 3D printer as one of the top 10 world promising future technologies. US president Barack Obama mentioned that 3D printer will be the next revolution in manufacturing industry.

3D printing technology is developed already in 1980s, however, original patent owned by US ‘3D systems’ will be expired by next year, and related material cost(machine, material, and etc) is expected to drop continuously, all industries’ eyes has been turned to 3D printing in recent 1 year. 4,050 News on 3D printer were searched, and higher than 90%, 3,667 news were published in last 1 year.

WIPS conducted brief patent analysis on 3D printing technology to have a general view of 3D printing technology trend. First, we extracted core keywords of 3D printing, Second, with our WIPS Global Worldwide patent search and analysis engine, searched related patents.

Between the period 1984 and 2013, 899 patents on 3D printing technology are searched in Korea, United States, Japan and Europe. With these patents, we conducted analysis on 4 fields; patent trend by year, patent trend by country, patent trend by detail technology field, patent trend by assignee.

As a result, United States owns dominant position based on outstanding technology in current market, and Korea has started technology development recently. Among 899 patents in 4 regions, US patent ratio almost reached 59%. Korea patent ratio is merely 11%, however, it shows constant growing tendency.

SAL(StereoLithography Apparatus) based technology appears to take 76% of all technologies, and R&D on SAL technology was pretty active at early stage, and SLS(Selective Laser Sintering) technology and FDM(Fused Deposition Modelling) technology are getting more attention since 2000.

US and Israel are leading players in 3D printing technology R&D field, and most of top ranked assignees are from US, and ‘3D systems’ and ‘Stratasys’ are Leading market assignees among them.

3D printing technology is expected to bring a revolution especially in Bio and medical fields, which needs small quantity batch production way for producing of artificial bones, organs, and other human organisms. However, many problems hinder its rosy future’s arrival yet. Long molding time, surface resolution, solidity of sculpture, limit of processing material, computer capacity, all are problems waiting to be solved on the path to the rosy revolution.

Careful approach and prudent strategy planning are required, in order to create and sustain healthy 3D industry, it has to be coexistent with other existing industries. 3D CAD S/W devices, Material and printer service, maintenance service, and all other related industries construct a whole new value chain, and this new value chain needs to be developed in a harmony, as a part of whole industry ecosystem.

Through patent and market analysis, ‘Stratasys’ and ‘3D Systmes’ turn out to be two main players, as technology keeps developing and more patents will be published, competition to secure important patents and occupy dominant position in the market between these two giants seems inevitable. In case of Korea, even though number of 3D printing technology related patents are growing, still too small compared to that of other developed countries, Korea seems to have long way to go to catch up. Depend on the support including strategic investment from the government, the long road maybe become easier to go. 

Pinterest Doesn’t Own Rights To ‘Pinterest,’ Says European Trademark Office

 Photo by jesstjohnson

 According to ZEEBIZ, A European Trademark court has reportedly ruled that social networking site Pinterest doesn't own the name, and must change it before it plans for international expansion.

Created by Alex Hearm, Premium Interest applied for the "Pinterest" trademark in January 2012.

So, Pinterest must change name to do business in Europe.

DMC Tower 18th~19th Floor, 189 Sungam-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea

Global Tel: +82-2-726-1104, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr

Japan Tel: +82-2-726-1113, 1107 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | wips-jp@wips.co.kr

China, Taiwan Tel: +82-2-726-1038, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr 

Creative advertisement!

ad.co.kr

It's a print media advertisement of Chromax which is pharmaceutical company in Egypt.

They write "one is enough" on all images and convey their strength concisely.

ad.co.kr

ad.co.kr

fabric deodorizer 'FEBRIZE' Advertisement

Fiber structure is expressed as cigarette, fish, French fries!

DMC Tower 18th~19th Floor, 189 Sungam-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea

Global Tel: +82-2-726-1104, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr

Japan Tel: +82-2-726-1113, 1107 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | wips-jp@wips.co.kr

China, Taiwan Tel: +82-2-726-1038, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr 

BlackBerry Patent Suit Targets iPhone Keyboard

photo by langleyo

According to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, BlackBerry filed a suit against Typo Products LLC, the maker of a snap-on keyboard accessory for the iPhone. BlackBerry's general counsel, Steve Zipperstein, called the Typo "obvious infringement against BlackBerry's iconic keyboard," saying the company "will vigorously strongly protect our intellectual property against any company that attempts to copy our unique design."

 The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. However,
It is unclear exactly which patents Typo is alleged to have violated, and BlackBerry declined to discuss the lawsuit beyond a news release.

DMC Tower 18th~19th Floor, 189 Sungam-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea

Global Tel: +82-2-726-1104, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr

Japan Tel: +82-2-726-1113, 1107 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | wips-jp@wips.co.kr

China, Taiwan Tel: +82-2-726-1038, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr 

NetJets loses IntelliJet trademark spat with Florida aircraft leasing company

photo Aero Icarus

 According to COLUMBUS BUSINESS FIRST, NetJets Inc. has to surrender a trademark
for its IntelliJet software after losing a dispute with a Florida aircraft brokerage
and leasing company using the same name.

 NetJets has until Jan.18  to appeal the ruling, which allows it to still call its
software IntelliJet.

DMC Tower 18th~19th Floor, 189 Sungam-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea

Global Tel: +82-2-726-1104, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr

Japan Tel: +82-2-726-1113, 1107 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | wips-jp@wips.co.kr

China, Taiwan Tel: +82-2-726-1038, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr 

5 Steps to Invest in a Trademark

photo opensource.com

 A trademark is one of the most important investment in protecting the intellectual property of your business. There are five steps to obtain a trademark.

1) Search for Conflicting Trademarks
- A first step is to make sure there are not any conflicting trademarks.
  (should search on the United States Patent & Trademark Office's website)

2) Start an Application
- After checking there are no conflicting trademarks, you need to complete a trademark application.

3) Prove Your Trademark

4) Select Its Class of Goods/Services

5) Include a Contact Address
- You need to include a contact address for the trademark registration.

DMC Tower 18th~19th Floor, 189 Sungam-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea

Global Tel: +82-2-726-1104, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr

Japan Tel: +82-2-726-1113, 1107 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | wips-jp@wips.co.kr

China, Taiwan Tel: +82-2-726-1038, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr 

Microsoft's "Throne Together" new trademark filed.

Microsoft Throne Together trademark uspto.gov

Gamepot reported that Microsoft filed a trademark ‘Throne Together’ for its new game on December 19th, 2013. This is the only information on the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) so far, this new trademark could be one of Xbox game or new IP. 

This is what we can find about Throne Together trademark on USPTO.

search result on uspto.gov 

DMC Tower 18th~19th Floor, 189 Sungam-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea

Global Tel: +82-2-726-1104, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr

Japan Tel: +82-2-726-1113, 1107 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | wips-jp@wips.co.kr

China, Taiwan Tel: +82-2-726-1038, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr 

Apple, Samsung resume negotiations over patent royalties

photo Vemon Chan

 Despite of a two-year boring legal battle, two companies have started discussing the possibility of inking a royalties deal and putting an end to all of their litigation.

photo Mark Hillary 

 An official at Korea's Fair Trade Commission told the Times that "as far as I know, the companies recently resumed working-level discussions toward the signing of a potential deal. They are in the process of narrowing differences over royalty payments."

DMC Tower 18th~19th Floor, 189 Sungam-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea

Global Tel: +82-2-726-1104, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr

Japan Tel: +82-2-726-1113, 1107 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | wips-jp@wips.co.kr

China, Taiwan Tel: +82-2-726-1038, 1130 | Fax: +82-2-777-7334 | global@wips.co.kr