Welcome to Patent Bolt, a dedicated Intellectual Property news site that specializes in dissecting patent applications from leading industry players such as Microsoft, Google, Samsung and others. If you love to explore future inventions, you'll love our site.
Today the US Patent & Trademark Office approved and published Google's latest registered trademark for their "Ingress" game related logo under registration number 4,338,872. Google's online game, now in beta, is called Ingress. It's to transform the real world into the landscape for a global game of mystery, intrigue, and competition. You can request an invite to test the game here. Google originally filed for their trademark back in December 2012.
The US Patent & Trademark Office recently published a patent application from Google that revealed their work on ensuring that Google Glass will one day be a positive tool for the hearing impaired. So while certain circles will always see Glass as a major spy tool, there's the flip-side where it could be a positive tool for the hearing impaired.
BlackBerry has been on a roll of late with the launch of their new Z10 touchscreen smartphone, their Q10 with touchscreen and physical keyboard and software announcements that BlackBerry's popular messaging services called BBM is coming to both iOS (iPhone only) and Android in the coming months. Adding to that momentum, the US Patent Office published a new patent application this week illustrating a future BlackBerry smartphone with a unique flexible display design. It's BlackBerry's second such design in the past 60 days.
Last week the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Microsoft that reveals their invention relating to voice-controlled camera operations for a smartphone. The new feature would be great for self-portraits or for group photos that could allow you to join in. While it's not as cool as saying "OK Google" take a photo in a hands free mode, it's still interesting to see that voice commands will be coming to smartphones to control camera functionality in the future, and particularly from a Windows Smartphone. It was rumored last month that Microsoft has been testing a new smartphone design, and so this Microsoft patent filing is just another hint that such a development is in fact in play.
Google introduced their new music streaming service at this week's I/O developer Conference. According to their website, "Google Play Music makes it easy to discover, play and share the music you love on Android and the web. With our new All Access service (US), you can play millions of songs on Google Play, listen to radio with no limits, and enjoy playlists handcrafted by our music experts." As if it was custom ordered, the US Patent and Trademark Office published Google's patent application regarding this new service less than 24 hours later. The focus of the patent surrounds a personal music collection start page.
On May 16, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a series of three patent applications from Motorola that reveal some of their vision concerning a future Smartwatch. Beyond their Smartwatch doubling as a smartphone with a flexible display, it will also integrate a wide variety of next generation sensors. The patents point to sensors that could sense the condition of your skin right through to monitoring both your pulse and heart rate and keeping all of that information stored in a medical profile on your watch. At the end of the day, if you happen to be a big Motorola fan then you'll certainly enjoy exploring this report.
Yesterday the US Patent and Trademark Office published a few notable granted patents for Samsung in respect to design patents covering tablets and a washing machine that will incorporate a full touch display for operations. On the Tablet front, there are two distinct designs. The first one is simply titled "Tablet Computer" could be looking to the active student or business user who would appreciate the built-in case with a handle that could double as a stand for quick presentations. The second design which is titled "Tablet PC" is equally intriguing in that it could be a design that incorporates a flexible display. The problem with all design patents is that they don't provide the public with any relevant detail specifics. It's truly a mindless WYSIWYG approach to patents.
What is with Taiwanese institutions suing American Companies of late? Apple was slapped with their second patent infringement lawsuit last week by the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan and now the Institute for Information Industry based in Taiwan is suing Google. The information industry research institute is claiming that Google products such as Google Search, Google+Local, and Google Places allegedly infringe upon one of their patents.
On May 09, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from BlackBerry revealing their intent of implementing a new feature for future BlackBerry devices that the patent describes as "Block Zoom." This feature would be good news for future BlackBerry devices. It's one of the great little features found on Apple's iDevices. And if BlackBerry is ever hoping to regain their former customer base that switched to the iPhone, then they're going to have to find a way or workaround to get some of these favorite features brought to their future devices. BlackBerry's new "Block Zoom" is one of them. It's the equivalent to Apple's double-tap feature which drops all ads on a webpage while magnifying the text to fill the screen. It's a brilliant little feature. BlackBerry's current smartphone, the Z10, forces you to use a "pinch and zoom" gesture to accomplish the same thing, but it's a messy solution. So it's great to see that the engineers at BlackBerry have found an equivalent feature for the future called Block Zoom.
On May 09, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Samsung revealing a possible future flexible HDTV display that consumers will be able to bend to a better viewing angle by simply using their remote controller. The range of flexibility will go far beyond that of a tradition HDTV on a stand.
In early 2013 the photo of Google's co-founder Sergey Brin riding New York's subway wearing the Company's upcoming Glass product went viral. Interestingly, Brin's subway ride was likely a planned prototyping test for their futuristic wearable computer. That was evident when reviewing one of Google's latest patent filings. The key example found in the patent describes a user wearing Glass on a subway and how the menus, icons and content seen in the Glass display would shift positioning automatically and remain centered in the display while the subway car was traveling and changing directions in real-time due to an advance eye-tracking system engineered into Glass.
Google's Glass and Apple's wrist band computer or iWatch have caught the imagination of the public as the wearable computer makers are preparing to descend upon the consumer with new wares later next year. Companies like Samsung, LG, Microsoft and now BlackBerry are all considering the smart watch as one of their first wearable computer devices. In fact, a new patent application from BlackBerry published by the US Patent and trademark Office earlier in this current quarter clearly indicates that they have a few initial ideas about wearable computers. While one could certainly be a smart watch, they're also looking into other ideas like a smart tie clip which could be refashioned or repurposed as a jewelry accessory for women. Yes, smart bling: who knew that was in the works?
