Supreme Court rules generic website names can be trademarked

The Supreme Court has ruled that website names are trademarkable even if they consist of a generic term followed by ".com." The ruling means that Booking.com is eligible for a trademark on the generic name that's associated with its domain. Booking.c...

Nintendo prevails in lawsuit over Switch console and JoyCon design

After two and a half years of back-and-forth, a patent battle around the Nintendo Switch's design has ended in a win for the Japanese gaming company. In 2017, Gamevice filed suit against Nintendo, claiming that the Switch was too similar to its gamin...

Apple once envisioned retractable bumpers for its self-driving cars

Apple once dreamed of self-driving cars with retractable bumpers. In 2015, the company filed a patent for "extendable bumpers" with the US Patent and Trademark Office. The patent was published this morning, but even if Apple were once serious about a...

Apple’s Patent Application on Audio Hyperlinking


The high tech giant, Apple Incorporated has applied for an audio hyperlinking patent to the US Patent and Trademark Office. The basic goal is the facilitation of access to complementary Podcast...

Samsung files patent for auto-generating life diary, Mayans didn’t see it coming

Samsung files patent for auto-generating life diary, Mayans didn't see it coming

If the minutiae of people's lives crowd your feeds and drives you to frustration, you really won't be wanting this Samsung patent application to be approved. The USPTO filing outlines a process for creating a "life diary" by collecting all manner of information about your daily routine from your smartphone. Data such as where you've been, what the weather was like, what you've been listening to, et cetera, would be spun out in computer-generated sentences and compiled into a story of your day. Although it would lack the romanticism of a traditional, hand-written diary, we could see it having some use as a mundane log -- as long as you're happy for all that info to be recorded, that is. However, if this ever comes to fruition with sharing options, to boot, all the pictures of food, coffee house check-ins and FarmVille updates would seem insignificant in comparison. Some things, like the last time we sang along with the Bieb, are better left unshared.

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Samsung files patent for auto-generating life diary, Mayans didn't see it coming originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM continues its fuel cell streak, applies for two more patents

RIM continues its fuel cell streak, applies for two more patents

Looks like RIM is more interested in fuel cell technology than we thought: the BlackBerry maker has just applied for two closely related patents for including a fuel cell in an electronic device, one for the frame and one for the fuel tank itself. Although the primary aim of either patent is to show how to fit a fuel cell into the tight space of a mobile gadget, they do show a more rectangular and modern device chassis than the last patent we saw, which had more than a slight whiff of the classic BlackBerry about it. Neither application is necessarily a roadmap for the future, and they don't mean your next BlackBerry smartphone will need top-ups of lighter fluid or methanol every few weeks. Still, they hint that fuel cells are at least somewhat more than a passing fancy in Waterloo.

RIM continues its fuel cell streak, applies for two more patents originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 May 2012 22:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo patent application tech tracks your DS from above, serves as tour guide

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Nintendo is already guiding you through the Louvre with a 3DS, but a newly published US patent application takes that kind of tourism to a very literal new level. Legend of Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto's concept describes a way to direct lost tourists by beaming position information through an overhead grid of infrared transmitters to a mobile device (portrayed as a DS Lite) held by the confused visitor below. The handheld then talks wirelessly to a server that lights up floor displays with maps and directions, and a helpful app on the device lets visitors pick their route while they read up on sightseeing tips. Like with any patent, there's no certainty that Nintendo will act on the idea and start wiring up museums with IR blasters, but the January 2012 patent may still be fresh in a frequently inventive mind like Miyamoto's.

Nintendo patent application tech tracks your DS from above, serves as tour guide originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 May 2012 11:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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