However, a product I work with (a specific alloy) had a patent granted for its use in sporting goods.
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Today we've got ZapMedia, who's having some fun with a patent granted Tuesday by claiming that it covers tech used in both the iPod and iTunes.
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And where was it Steve Jobs was working when this bounce back patent was granted to Apple?
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Once the patent is granted they often need to engage in enforcing it, for example through proactive and reactive litigation.
The newest version of the patent was granted in December of 2012.
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The German company last year approached the Intellectual Property Appellate Board after the local patent authority granted a "compulsory license" to Natco Pharma Ltd.
As is the case with Apple's patent contributions, however, we'll wait to see whether the patent is granted and whether these ideas will ever crystallize into a genuine product.
This is just words and a few diagrams at this stage, mind, but if the patent gets granted, we could eventually see such a feature added to Samsung's smartphones or Galaxy cameras.
The U.S. patent office appears to have granted Pfizer a patent covering any drug that blocks this enzyme, meaning that it can sue all of its potential competitors.
Last year, in a case involving eBay, the court granted patent infringers more wiggle room against injunctions.
Last year, in a case involving eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ), the court granted patent infringers more wiggle room against injunctions.
The patent itself, granted in 2006, cost considerably more.
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Sony's freshly granted patent claims that a microphone can take on that job instead by listening to the sound your finger or stylus makes when it hits the screen and deducing force from that.
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This is part of the contract that forms the basis for the patent system: in exchange for teaching the public how to practice the invention, a patent holder is granted a time-limited right to exclude others from doing so.
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One's perspective shifts easily, however, when targets change and the defendants themselves are no longer aggressively litigious corporations with an arsenal of filing cabinets spilling over with intellectual property, as was the case when one company used a recently granted patent to go after a number of podcasting networks.
Six-month patent extensions are automatically granted to drug companies who study their drugs in children.
For example, Apple has been granted a patent on a mobile device which is rectangular in shape and has rounded corners.
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Last year, a U.S. firm was granted a patent for a traditional Indian home remedy - the use of turmeric as an antiseptic.
But I am amazed that a patent like this is granted.
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Commander Shepard is not someone we expected to pop up in an Apple patent from 2009 (granted today), but here we are, staring into his icy visage.
Look what we have here, possibly in the nick of time: it's a newly granted Apple patent for a screen with in-cell touch, where the LCD and touch recognition are integrated into one panel instead of stacking up in separate layers.
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There are genetic patents already granted by the patent and trademark office, and some have survived legal challenges.
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There were concerns that, if granted, a patent could threaten access to cheap generic versions of life-saving drugs in poorer countries.
As several people are pointing out Apple has been granted a US patent on the slide to unlock feature of the iPhone.
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This patent should never have been granted in the first place.
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Sark's system of government dates back to 1565 when Queen Elizabeth I granted "letters patent" to the first seigneur to hold the island as a "royal fief".
Granted, this patent application also proposes iPod docking into just about every device imaginable, including images of the device docked in a regular dock, speaker dock, wall mount, and so on.
Apple has been chasing NFC patents for years, but it's just now been granted a US patent for its own approach to a transportation check-in -- one of the most common uses of the technology in the real world.
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Henderson, who runs companies that have sued many of the largest technology companies over patents on everything from answering machines to video game technology, needed to convince patent officials that he had invented the device before another patent covering similar technology was granted.
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