Halloween will be commemorated by a review of a creepy patent. U.S. Patent No. 10,313,638 B1 (‘638) issued on June 4, 2019, for “Image Creation Using Geo-Fence Data.” The inventors are Kalidas Yeturu of Chennai, India, and Howard Lee Huddleston, Jr., of Seattle, Washington. The applicant/assignee is Amazon Technologies, Inc., the e-commerce giant. Figure 1 …
Category: technology
NIST Seeking Comments on CRISPR Lexicon
On September 18, 2019, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s Genome Editing Consortium (GEC) formally sought comments on genome editing, commonly called CRISPR, terminology in order to develop a standardized system of terms and definitions for the CRISPR research community. This is the first time the NIST has made overtures to develop a …
TechPat: Former Uber Self-Driving Leader Indicted for Trade Secrets Theft
The United States Attorney’s office in San Jose, California, recently indicted Uber Technologies, Inc.’s former autonomous driving car guru, Anthony Levandowski, with thirty-three counts of trade secrets theft in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§1832(a)-(d). The indictment was only released on August 27, 2019, after being unsealed by the federal district court judge presiding over the …
TechPat: U.S. Patent No. 10,360,269 B2
The Oracle OpenWorld 2019 conference will be held in San Francisco from September 16-19, 2019. To commemorate Oracle OpenWorld, the blog will highlight a recently-issued Oracle, Inc. patent. U.S. Patent No. 10,360,269 B2 (‘269), issued on July 23, 2019, for “Proxy databases.” The inventor is Thomas Baby of Auburn, Washington. The applicant and assignee is …
TechPat: Monsanto Loses Third Glyphosate Jury Verdict; Fourth Trial Set in Missouri Today
Monsanto Corp., the Big Ag company which manufactures the weed killer ROUNDUP®, and was the loser in three California jury trials which $2.48 billion in potential damages, in which all the plaintiffs asserted the active ingredient in ROUNDUP, glyphosate, caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), is getting ready for a fourth trial, this time in its …
CannabIP: Hemp Now Accepted For PVP Protection
On April 24, 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that the Plant Variety Protection Office (PVPO) will begin accepting applications for new, distinctive hemp-based seed-propagated plants for Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Certificates, as a result of the 2018 Farm Bill signed December 20, 2018. Hemp is the non-psychoactive element of C. sativa plant, …
TechPat: U.S. Patent No. D844,022 S1
U.S. Patent No. D844,022 S (‘022) issued on March 26, 2019, for “Computing Device Display Screen with Graphical User Interface.” It was issued to inventor Shalin Amin, of San Francisco, California. The applicant/assignee is Uber, Inc. of San Francisco, California, a ride share/ride hailing company. This patent is a design patent under 35 U.S.C. §171, …
TechPat: U.S. Patent No. D842,331 S1
U.S. Patent No. D842,331 S (‘331) issued on March 5, 2019, for “Display Screen or Portion Thereof with Animated Graphical User Interface.” It was issued to inventors Jisi Guo, Eli Guerron, Craig Dehner, Frank Yoo, Karina van Schaardenburg, and Hernrique Penha, all of San Francisco, California. The applicant/assignee is Lyft, Inc. of San Francisco, California, …
TechPat: U.S. Patent No. 10,154,254 B2
U.S. Patent No. 10,154,254 B2 (‘254), issued on December 11, 2018, for “Time-of-Flight Depth Sensing for Eye Tracking.” The inventor is Nicholas Daniel Trail of Bothell, Washington. The applicant and assignee is Facebook, Inc., of Menlo Park, California, the omniprescient social media company. The ‘254 specification discloses a headgear for a virtual reality (VR) or …
TechPat: U.S. Patent No. 10,144,342 B2
U.S. Patent No. 10,144,342 B2 (‘342), issued on December 4, 2018, for “Mobile Robot.” The inventors are Ze Ji of Portsmouth, Great Britain, and Christopher Andrew Smith of Bristol, Great Britain. The applicant and assignee is Dyson Technology Ltd., of Malmesbury, Great Britain, the tech-focused appliance company. The ‘342 specification discloses a smart vacuum cleaner …