Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology is a method of content protection that can limit the use of content to specific platforms, devices or other such methods as deemed by the content manufacturer. The practice has been widely scrutinized as of late, specifically in terms of digital music.
Google Obtains Similarity Engine Patent
This week, Google was awarded a patent for technology designed to address duplicate content issues throughout the index. The patent, originally filed in December of 2001, is entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Estimating Similarity.”
Microsoft Responds to RSS Patent Concerns
Last week, the U.S. Patent Office lifted the 18-month window of secrecy on two patent filings from Microsoft that analysts viewed as attempts by the company aimed at achieving exclusive rights to RSS aggregation technology.
Amazon Strikes Back At IBM In Patent War
Recently IBM sued Amazon.com over patent infringement. On Thursday Amazon fired back with a suit of it’s own directed at IBM for patent infringement. The countersuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Amazon disputes that they infringe on IBM patents and that IBM infringes on patents that Amazon holds.
Google Patent – Full-Text US Patent Searching
Off lately Google has introduced a new service, Google Patents search engine through which people can search full-text of US patents dating back to 1790 till middle of 2006.
Microsoft Files for Patent for DVR Advertising
Microsoft has filed for a patent involving ads on Digital Video Recorders. Now, don’t worry, they won’t be inserting ads over your shows; rather, this patent involves ensuring the ads you see are relevant when you see them.
Sony Files for Skin-Powered Headphones Patent
Engineers at Sony are developing a set of wireless headphones that use a person’s skin to transmit a signal between the headpiece and music source.
Boing Boing & Slashdot On Flickr’s Patent Attempt
Boing Boing: Flickr files a patent for “interestingness” Well a few weeks back I posted on Yahoo’s attempt to patent interestingness after reading a notice on the patent at Bill Slawksi’s excellent blog SEO by the Sea. And yesterday both Boing Boing and Slashdot picked up on the story as well.
The Patent Ploy
Microsoft to Offer Sales Support for Novell’s Suse Linux… Huh? Did I hear that right? Yep, there it is again: Linux to work with Windows.
IBM Sues Amazon for Patent Infringement
International Business Machines Corp. has filed two separate lawsuits against Amazon, alleging that the Seattle-based company improperly derived its e-commerce functions from technologies patented by IBM as far back as the 1980’s.