It seems to present a clear indication of what Cupertino was willing to offer hardware and software patents, but not the elements that Apple believes make its products unique and distinctive.
To safely operate in the mobile industry, a company needs to have substantial portfolios in the three main patent areas involved in the design of smartphones: operating system and software, hardware and wireless patents.
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Lodsys, you may remember, is a business based in Texas which has acquired a number of software patents and has set about threatening a series of developers of popular smartphone apps with legal action unless they agree to pay licensing fees.
The amount of energy that the big tech companies are expending to document and defend software patents makes no sense.
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First, there are so many software patents, and they have such unclear boundaries, that finding and negotiating the rights to necessary patents is essentially impossible.
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It says the European Patent Office (EPO) has shown itself willing to grant thousands of software patents - and worries the EU could end up with a system in which appeals against such judgements are decided according to the EPO's own rules.
And opposition to software patents fits naturally into the broader Tea Party policy agenda.
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The idea of broad software and design patents has come under a lot of scrutiny recently, and many in the tech community are eagerly awaiting the results of Apple vs.
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In addition to the sale of the patents and next-generation video codec software, RealNetworks and Intel signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on future support and development of the next-generation video codec software and related products.
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All three companies will contribute assets to the new venture, including patents, software, people, cash and capital equipment.
Misek notes in a new report that there are three key areas where patents are concentrated: hardware, software and wireless technology.
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Yet today the software industry is awash in patents and patent litigation.
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Software patents are definitely still in and companies may press further into the area of electronic processing of information, such as the so far-unpatentable methods of compressing digital signals.
The vast ocean of patents covering high-tech components, software and business processes means that each new product, generally comprising thousands of pieces of technology, usually infringes on several patents.
So any special rules for software patents will just push innovators and their patent lawyers to seek patent protection for hardware that achieves the same outcome, obtaining the synthetic equivalent of a software patent.
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And of course here in software patents.
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Rather, the software patent debate pits the patent bar and large software companies like Microsoft and IBM, which have tens of thousands of patents, against rank-and-file programmers and up-and-coming entrepreneurs for whom the threat of frivolous litigation is a growing disincentive to innovation.
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C-MAX Energi also benefits from 20 years of research and innovation behind the software and hardware technology it offers, incorporating many of the nearly 500 patents Ford holds in the area of hybrid technology.
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RealNetworks does not anticipate that the sale of the approximately 190 patents and 170 patent applications and next generation video codec software will have any material impact on its businesses.
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Software patents, in a sense, and almost unlike all other technology areas, restrict what feels like our treasured personal freedom, and understandably thus generate a visceral reaction to those so affected.
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The German court awarded Motorola the right to force Microsoft to recall and destroy its products following a complaint that the software firm had failed to license two patents necessary to offer H.264 video coding and playback.
It may not be possible to define software patents precisely, it may be easy for patent applicants to game any software-specific rules, and we have to find a way to remain in compliance with our treaty obligations.
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An outmoded patent application review process and a thicket of overbroad, overlapping software patents creates minefields for everyone from startups to major tech companies.
With 52 patents Katz pretty much has a stranglehold over the software and hardware that allows a company to interact with customers through computerized phone services.
"I felt like I won the lottery when I got accepted, " says Mr. Chakra, who manages a large group of software developers and has more than 55 patents.
If Goldman looks at patents issued to most software products companies they are very specific and not at all abstract.
Most of the smart people I talk to agree that software patents today are providing too much protection, and are hampering progress.
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The first member of Congress to champion the abolition of software patents would attract a significant amount of attention and support from these prosperous and well-educated voters.
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"MEPs voted in favour of a legally uncertain system that does not not provide any checks and balances against threats to innovation such as software patents, " said spokeswoman Jeanne Tadeusz.
The Supreme Court first upheld a software patent in 1981, involving software controlling a process for curing rubber, and since then patents have become a vital bulwark protecting the assets of big companies like IBM and Microsoft.
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