LG Settles With Klausner

Earlier this week, we reported that Google had agreed to settle their suit with Klausner Technologies.  That company, owned by Judah Klausner, owns a visual voicemail patent and had filed lawsuits against companies such as Apple, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless.  As reported by IntoMobile, LG has also followed the trend and agreed to settle with Klausner Technologies as well.

Visual voicemail allows someone to receive a message similar to an email whenever someone leaves a voicemail message.  These messages allow the user to selectively listen to messages.

LG decided to license this technology from Klausner because some of their phones, such as the LG Versa, incorporate this technology.  As Judah Klausner said, “We are pleased to announce LG as a Visual Voicemail licensee under our US and international VVM patents. Our patented technology, lets consumers view, prioritize and select voice messages from their mobile phones screens.”

New Geotargeting Patents from Google

Three recent Google patents have surfaced, and they seem to give insight into some search engine results.  The three patents are titled: “Ordering of search results based on language and/or country of the search results;” “System and method for providing preferred country biasing of search results;” and “System and method of providing preferred language ordering of search results.”

According to HuoMah, the first patent reorders to factor in the the lanuage of the user.  Google accomplishes this task by receiving the search term, identifying languages for the results, then adjusting the order based on determined languages and presenting it to the user.  But it should be noted that regional languages also count as a factor in the search results.  As the application states:

Acceptable languages include languages specified by the user, as well as other acceptable languages. For instance, a French-preferring user might also accept search results in English. Acceptable languages can also include related languages and dialects. For example, Portuguese search results might be acceptable to a user who generally prefers Spanish.

The other patents give weight to a user’s country as well, by performing the same tasks but factoring in one’s country before displaying the results.

It’s interesting to note that the application also made a reference to  classical dead languages, as well as psuedo-languages such as Klingon.  While the amount of people looking to search the web in Klingon is probably small, its nice that the option is still out there.

Google Settles Voicemail Patent Claim

It’s been a busy, yet profitable year and a half for inventor Judah Klausner.  In late 2007, his company, Klausner Technologies Inc, sued Apple and six other companies for $360 million for violating patents on visual voicemail technology.  He has won settlements from Apple, Skype and LG Electronics since then, but on Monday, Klausner announced that he has settled a similar claim with Google as well.

According to Reuters, this dispute involved patents covering visual voicemail as well.  This technology works like email by sending visual alerts of voice messages to computers or phones, and allowing users to selectively retrieve their messages.  Google currently offers web-based phone services, and it has also built the Android open software platform for smartphones.  It is thought that these technologies were at the center of the dispute.

While Klausner did not comment on the terms of his recent deal with Google, his suit against the internet giant has been dismissed and the issues cannot be revived in court.

In addition, Klausner stated that T-Mobile has agreed to license his European visual voicemail patents in 17 European countries.  This agreement covers a new visual voicemail service, and it marks the first time someone has licensed visual voicemail technology for a mobile phone other than Apple.

Dell Challenges ‘Netbook’ & Accuses Psion of Fraud

In 2000, Psion trademarked the word “Netbook,” and has aggressively defended the word since.  Recently, Psion sent out cease and desist letters to stop sites from using the term, and Psion even convinced Google to remove netbook from its Ad Words advertising program.  But according to CrunchGear, Dell has issued a petition to cancel Psion’s trademark.

Dell is claiming that Psion has abandoned the Netbook trademark, because Psion does not currently offer laptop computers under the trademark.  Also, Dell states that Psion does not intend to resume use of the trademarked name.

Dell also cited “Genericness” of the netbook term, since many companies now make netbooks as well.  Psion is also accused of fraud, as Dell states that a senior product manager for Psion claimed they had been actively using the term for its notebook computers, even though that was not the case.

It’ll be interesting to see how this legal battle plays out, especially since Psion’s netbook has not been on sale for some years.  Also, since other companies have carefully avoided the netbook term, the outcome of the case may effect the names of future products.

Google to Become Offensively-Minded

In an attempt to deter frivolous lawsuits, Google Inc. had decided to change its legal strategy.  Instead of taking a defensive approach to any litigation brought against the company, Google is now going on the offensive to fight patent claims.  As reported by Bloomberg.com, the number of patent challenges against Google increased to 14 last year, after 11 in 2007 and three in 2006.

Google currently has 24 cases pending and didn’t settle any patent challenges last year, although Google has settled cases in each of the last four years.  Hilary Ware, Google’s managing litigation counsel, said that Google still isn’t opposed to settling when its warranted.  Still, Google does not want to be seen as an easy target.

Some have criticized Google’s new approach, as it will lead to more litigation.  Alan Fisch, a patent lawyer at Kate Scholer, agreed that how this hard-line approach can actually be quite risky.  “If you’re going to take a hard-line approach, you’d better back it up with victories,” he said.

Google Complied With Apple’s Request for Android

Released last October, many complained that T-Mobile’s G1 did not have multi-touch technology.  The reason?  According to Venture Beat, the G1 is based on Google’s Android platform, and Apple asked Google not to implement multi-touch technology.

Apparently, an Android team member said they were relieved that Google didn’t go against Apple’s wishes, given the current storm brewing between Apple and Palm.  Furthermore, by honoring Apple’s wishes, Google’s relationship with the company can remain strong.

Google specially tailors many of their products for the iPhone, such as Google Maps and other formatted web pages.  Furthermore, Google’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, is on Apple’s board of directors.

While Google complied with this wish from Apple, some wonder if multi-touch will become so important that Google will be forced to implement multi-touch in the Android.  Such a question may depend on the course of events that follow Palm’s release of the Pre.  If Palm is allowed to keep multi-touch for their phone, Google will be forced to implement multi-touch in the Android.

Microsoft, Google and Apple Sued by Small Indiana-Based Company

Cygnus Systems, a small Indiana company, has sued Microsoft, Apple, and Google over a patent on a common file preview feature.  Cygnus claims that Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 8, and Google Chrome all infringe on their patent that allows users to see small snapshots of files before they are opened.

As reported on MacWorld, Cygnus has implied that although they have sued three high profile companies, more may be named in the suit.  “We’ve identified many other potentially infringing products that we’re investigating,” said Matt McAndrews, the attorney who is representing Cygnus.

Cygnus was granted the patent in March 2008, but it was applied for in 2001 as a continuation to a 1998 application.  Cygnus is seeking damages and a permanent injunction to prevent further infringement.

While some may accuse Cygnus of being a patent troll, the exact language of their patent must be examined a little closer.  More must be known about the history of the patent as well as the exact language of the patent before making such an accusation.  But, if this lawsuit comes before a judge and is ruled in favor of Cygnus, it may have major implications on the Technology industry and several other companies will have to shell out millions.

Google’s Patents to Squeeze Money Out of Social Networks

Google recently had a series of patents applications published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  As IEEE Spectrum reports, the patents are designed to raise ad revenue from social networks by relying on language processing and other technology to search for patterns in data.  Social networks get most of their money through ads, and research has shown that these sites currently account for only $1.4 billion of the $50 billion online advertising pie.

The names of the patents are “Open Profile Content Identification,” “Custodian Based Content Identification,” and “Related Entity Content Identification.”  Behind these names are algorithms that would let Google find patterns in users’ profiles, pages, and friend lists in order to better target ads.  The hope is that these methods will increase the likelihood that users click on the ads.

None of Google’s patents propose anything that social networking ad agencies haven’t already attempted.  In June, the social ad firm Social Media Networks claimed it invented an algorithm called FriendRank that examines a user’s friendship lists for the names of friends who might be dropped in a targeted ad.  However, as one ad agency CEO said, “[Google's] language-processing and pattern-recognizing algorithms are probably key to the whole enterprise.”

Google did not disclose its particular pattern-searching algorithms, but apparently that doesn’t matter.  Just the amount of attention Google is paying to social media advertising is changing the way people look at these sites.  As Jeremy Pinkham, Chief Technical Officer of Lotame Solutions, remarked about Google’s patents, “[they] validate that this industry is worth people’s attention.”

“Friendly” Lawsuit Filed Against Google

As reported on TechDirt, an interesting patent lawsuit was recently filed against Google.  The lawsuit alleges that Google, or Google Reader to be precise, infringes on two patents with information “coordination and retrieval.”  While this may seem ordinary, the lawsuit gets interesting as it was filed pro se, or without an outside lawyer.

The lawsuit suggests that the inventor really, really didn’t want to file a patent infringement lawsuit.  It says that the plaintiffs notified Google in 2007 about the patents by emailing Google’s bizdev email account.  In March 2008, the plaintiff received an email from Google that dismissed the claims.  As the lawsuit states:

Further, as Priest & Morris, in good faith, only wish that the invention be used to its fullest potential, and have a strong wish that precious court and corporate resources be conserved, the plaintiffs prefer reaching this fair settlement through friendly appreciation and negotiation. In any event, we encourage defendant to not view this complaint as ‘litigious behavior’ and to view it in respective good faith and action.

It’ll be tough for Google not to view the filing of the lawsuit as “litigious behavior,” because after all, it is litigious behavior.  Furthermore, the typical cost to defend a patent lawsuit is roughly $5 million, and so it is hard to see how Google will interpret all of this as “friendly appreciation and negotiation.”