Patents

Like any inventor, L.A. Gear feels strongly about its creations. So the thriving Marina del Rey athletic shoe company was pleased when it was awarded design patent 300,181 by the federal government last March to protect an important step forward in its business: the Brats shoe, a sneaker with a tongue so fat that the shoe always looks fashionably untied. It was a big deal for L.A. Gear, and maybe for teen-agers who once had to trip on their laces in pursuit of the untied-shoelace style.

Google Inc., owner of the most frequently used Internet search engine, must answer a Wisconsin company's lawsuit over a browser toolbar feature that generates Web links from computer search data, a federal appeals court decided Wednesday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit revived part of HyperPhrase Technologies' lawsuit, throwing out a lower court ruling that Google's AutoLink feature didn't infringe the company's patents.

It's too bad that Greg Kinnear couldn't have played Robert Kearns more often in real life. That thought went through my mind last week while watching Kinnear's performance in "Flash of Genius," a new drama based on the story of the cantankerous Detroit engineer who successfully sued Ford and Chrysler for a combined $30 million for infringing on his patent designs for the intermittent windshield wiper. Kinnear apparently never met Kearns, who died of cancer at age 77 in 2005.

When does a great idea become a patentable invention? That was a question easier to answer when Thomas Edison came up with the lightbulb and Whitcomb Judson devised the zipper -- Industrial Age innovations that clearly fit with old ideas of what it meant to invent something. But a recent case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit points up the difficulty of making such judgments in the age of the Internet. Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw of WeatherWise USA Inc.

The House on Friday passed the most significant change to the patent system in 50 years, a sweeping update to the complex process for granting exclusive rights to inventors. Supporters said the legislation, approved 220 to 175, would weed out questionable patents and deter lawsuits that hindered U.S. innovation. Under the bill, experts in a specific field would be allowed for the first time to submit their views about pending patents before they were granted.

El Segundo-based Mattel Inc.'s Fisher-Price unit won $1.32 million in damages from the Safety 1st unit of Canadian Dorel Industries Inc., bringing to $2.32 million its court awards for infringement of patents on baby bassinets and bouncers. A jury in federal court in Wilmington, Del., added the damages to a $1-million award levied by another panel in 2003. The jury said Safety 1st's infringement was intentional, giving U.S.

It was to be the final medical procedure for Ruben Navarro, an altruistic end to the life of a critically ill 26-year-old who doctors said had no chance to recover. Staffers at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo were to disconnect him from the machine pumping oxygen into his lungs. After his heart stopped, transplant surgeons were to remove his organs so they could be used to save the lives of others. But in the late night quiet of an operating room Feb.

The nation's two biggest diaper makers have settled the latest in a series of court battles, an antitrust case that was set for trial today. The companies and their attorneys declined to discuss details of the settlement that was reached Saturday. Kimberly-Clark Corp. had claimed that rival Procter & Gamble Co. brought patent infringement suits against it solely to gain a monopoly of the $4-billion disposable diaper market.

About an hour after the UCLA professor taped a plastic bandage--laced with a powerful drug--to the arm of his research assistant, the man became sick to his stomach. And in that brief, bilious moment, a popular anti-smoking remedy--the nicotine patch--was born. Another pair of scientists spent decades at UC Davis creating varieties of strawberries--checking them for taste, size and productivity--and patenting new breeds that today account for more than half of the world's production.

The phone call that changed Thomas Glaze's life came from his attorney in September, 1986. Monoclonal Antibodies, Glaze's biotechnology company in Mountain View, Calif., had unexpectedly lost a patent case at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington. A rival biotech company, Hybritech, sued Monoclonal Antibodies for infringing a Hybritech patent by selling biotechnology-produced diagnostic kits used in pregnancy tests.

Broadcom Corp., after failing to buy Emulex Corp., said it sued the company for infringing patents related to networking and communications technologies. In its suit, filed in U.S. District Court, Broadcom says Emulex infringed 10 patents that cover high-speed data and storage technologies. Broadcom is seeking cash and an order stopping the infringement. Emulex did not immediately comment.

Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea, the world's largest maker of liquid-crystal display televisions, may be barred from selling TVs and computer monitors in the U.S. after losing a patent case filed by Japanese rival Sharp Corp. The U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington said Wednesday that Samsung violated Sharp's patent rights and ordered both sides to submit arguments on whether an import ban should be imposed. In a notice on its website, the agency said it wanted to consider the effect of a ban on "competitive conditions in the U.S. economy."

Amazon.com Inc. has sued Animal Planet TV channel operator Discovery Communications Inc. over patents for a way to conduct searches on Internet shopping sites. In the suit filed May 15 in federal court in Amazon's hometown of Seattle, the online retailer contends that Discovery's online store is infringing four patents related to ways consumers refine searches for products or get recommendations based on prior purchases. Amazon is seeking a court order to block further use of the inventions, plus cash compensation.

Mobile phone chip maker Qualcomm Inc. won the dismissal of a Broadcom Corp. lawsuit accusing the San Diego company of improperly using its wireless-technology patents to suppress competition. A federal judge's ruling made public Monday said Broadcom failed to properly claim that Qualcomm's patent rights were exhausted by its licensing of handset manufacturers. The Irvine company alleged that by collecting royalties from chip makers, Qualcomm was getting paid twice for the same patents.

Callaway Golf Co., the maker of Big Bertha and Steelhead golf clubs, traded lawsuits with Fortune Brands Inc.'s Acushnet Co. over its redesigned Titleist Pro V1 golf balls. Acushnet's new versions of Pro V1 golf balls, modified after a previous infringement suit by Callaway, infringed two other patents, according to a complaint filed Monday in Wilmington, Del. Acushnet countersued, claiming Callaway's patents are invalid and that the Carlsbad, Calif., company infringed nine of its patents.

When does a great idea become a patentable invention? That was a question easier to answer when Thomas Edison came up with the lightbulb and Whitcomb Judson devised the zipper -- Industrial Age innovations that clearly fit with old ideas of what it meant to invent something. But a recent case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit points up the difficulty of making such judgments in the age of the Internet. Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw of WeatherWise USA Inc.

The California Institute of Technology sued Canon Inc., Nikon Corp. and four other digital-camera makers, demanding cash for what it said was the unauthorized use of patented inventions. Also sued were Japanese camera makers Olympus Corp., Panasonic Corp., Sony Corp. and Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. The lawsuit targets cameras made by Canon and Nikon, the world's two biggest makers of digital cameras, and the other companies. The companies are accused of infringing six patents owned by the institute for pixel sensors that improve the images that are transmitted electronically.

Charter Communications Inc., the U.S. cable television company controlled by billionaire Paul Allen, sued Verizon Communications Inc., alleging that the phone company's FiOS fiber-optic network infringes four patents. Verizon, the second-largest U.S. phone-services provider, should be ordered to pay damages and stop using on-demand and other technologies without permission, Charter said in a complaint filed in federal court in Norfolk, Va.

MGA Entertainment Inc., maker of Bratz dolls, filed an emergency request Friday with a U.S. appeals court to stay a court order barring it from making and selling the dolls while it appeals the ruling. If MGA doesn't get a stay by Dec. 31, the Van Nuys company will suffer irreparable harm, it said in a redacted filing with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Eastman Kodak Co.'s complaint seeking to bar rivals Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. from importing mobile phones with digital cameras that infringe its patents will be investigated by U.S. trade officials. The U.S. International Trade Commission said it would investigate the complaint brought by Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak, the 128-year-old photography company.