An interesting aspect about the patents is the fact that Steve Jobs was credited as an inventor, even though he has now recently passed away. The patents therefore serve as one of the final creative legacies that Steve Jobs has left behind. The patent was initially filed in the second half of 2006, almost 6 years ago, and other credited inventors alongside Steve Jobs include Jeffrey Ma, Rachel Goldeen, Rainer Brodersen and Mihnea Pacuraiu.

With Apple’s market dominance with other popular consumer electronic devices such as the iPod, iPhone and the iPad, these new set of patents signal Apple’s budding interest in entering and then leading the HDTV hardware space. It is expected that future Apple products related to television may implement the patented methods for organizing episodic programming. In addition, future Apple TV devices could have the capability of recording broadcast television shows. Apart from these patented innovations in television, USA Today recently also reported that Apple was working on an LCD TV that was at least 42 inches in size.

Apple’s innovations in the television space are significant for making TV devices more interactive and attractive, as more people around the world have instead been watching more videos and episodes from the internet rather than their conventional TV sets.

Pall Corporation is a global leader in separation, filtration and purification technologies for use in the medical field. The company’s patent application with the USPTO for the new cell collection and seeding system marks a new step forward in biotechnology. It is expected to significantly speed up the process of isolating cells for delivery to a vascular graft. When it is implanted in a patient, the graft can grow into a blood vessel which will return blood to the heart.

The patent application covers a system which is designed to be used in the operating room, and since it is completely self enclosed it eliminates the possibility of infection from contamination. It is likely that the new technology will first be used in a procedure which involves the implantation of bio-engineered blood vessel grafts into patients who have congenital heart defects.

The grafts will grow to replace blood vessels which are missing or damaged in these patients. The new vessels eventually grow to become part of the patient’s body and function just like their own blood vessels. This ground breaking procedure is currently being tested in clinical trials across the US.

This new system is the most recent example of how Pall Corporation works with leading researchers in the biotechnology field to create and patent advanced medical technologies and bring them to market. Pall has a long history of developing medical devices and products which enhance the medical processes clinicians can offer to their patients. The chief technology officer of Pall Corporation noted that the technology has applications which extend beyond the field of vascular engineering. For example, it also allows for the future development of products that can be used in coronary artery bypass surgery. These procedures are currently limited by a lack of blood vessels which can be used as replacement arteries. This is often the case in patients who require repeat operations and have already used the large leg veins in earlier procedures.

Another valuable feature of the service is two day shipping on all their purchases from Amazon.com. The new PBS episodes will be available to Prime members later in the year, for a total of over 12,000 TV shows and movies for Prime members to choose from. The total content available to members has doubled since the launch of the service last year.

The license deal is good news for Kindle Fire owners as well, who will be able to access the expanded catalog from these 7 inch tablets once they launch in November of this year. Kindle Fire buyers will receive a one month free subscription to the Prime service upon activation of the device.

The Amazon Prime service has been growing rapidly since inception under one year ago, and currently streams over 50 million episodes of content to users around the world each month. Prior to the PBS deal, Amazon had added 11,000 movies and shows to the service as the result of a deal with Fox TV. Users can access the content via mobile app or website.

The licensing deal with PBS will also mean that some shows will be offered in digital video format for the first time, such as The French Chef with Julia Child. Members of Amazon Prime have the option of accessing the expanded content from over 300 types of devices, the Kindle Fire being one of these.

The Kindle Fire is built for multimedia use, and allows users to watch movies and shows, listen to music, read magazines, run apps, read books, play games and more. Some of the most popular news programs on PBS will be offered on the Prime service one day after their network debut. Prime users will also have access to content from Fox, CBS, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros, Sony and more.

Twitter is well known for being one of the largest online social networking platforms in which users are able to send and receive messages, known as “tweets”, which must be no more than 140 characters. The Twittad network of over 27,000 users of Twitter helps them get paid for distributing ads via tweets.

Twitter began its trademark fight back in 2009, but its efforts were twice thwarted as the trademark process was frozen by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The company had to resort to a suit against Twittad in which it was argued that the term “tweet” was made famous by Twitter before it was registered by Twittad.

The US Patent and Trademark Office rejected the previous requests by Twitter to trademark “tweet” based on the fact that related trademarks were in the process. These related trademarks include terms like “tweetmarks”, “tweetphoto”, and “cotweet.” The lawsuit that Twitter filed against Twittad prompted that company to negotiate an agreement which would transfer the trademark rights for the word “tweet” to Twitter in exchange for the lawsuit being dropped.

This agreement benefits both companies, as it gives Twitter the trademark rights to the word “tweet” while maintaining the company’s business relationship with Twittad by reinstating the company’s Twitter account which had been suspended. There has been no news of any other payment incentive to Twittad as part of the agreement.

An Australian court is expected to rule later this month on whether Samsung will be blocked from selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in that country. The ruling will be in response to a suit by Apple lodged against Samsung in a Sydney court in early 2011. The suit alleges that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab violates patents on the iPad. The two companies are battling each other in similar suits across several countries today.

Samsung alleges that the claims by Apple against the Galaxy Tab 10,1 are not valid because the patent in question already expired. Samsung plans to follow up their Sydney countersuit with another injunction against the iPhone 5 in the South Korea in hopes of blocking sales of the iPhone 5 in that country.

These moves definitely escalate the legal stakes between the two companies, which have now racked up a total of 20 lawsuits against one another in the US, South Korea, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.

The tablet injunctions faced by Samsung in Germany and the Netherlands are expected to cost the company significant revenues unless it can settle or lodge sufficiently damaging counter charges against Apple. If the ITC were to rule that each company was in violation of the other company’s patents, they may each face difficulties in the US market.

ViewSonic is another company that recently took advantage of the licensing program to cover their mobile phones and tablets running both Chrome and Android. ViewSonic manufactures a range of visual technologies such as monitors, plasma displays, projectors and mobile products. The new ViewSonic ViewPad 7 will be running Android, but the company is thinking of using Chrome in some other tablets as well. Microsoft certainly benefits from these licensing deals as well, with the company grabbing lucrative revenues for each device sold. For example, the company arranged a similar deal with HTC several months ago which netted them $5 per device.

Microsoft is having trouble selling their own Windows phone, but is able to profit from the success of other smartphone makers with these licensing agreements. Microsoft has yet to announce the terms of the deals with ViewSonic and Acer, but these deals signify a definite trend in the industry which will ultimately see Microsoft earning more via licensing deals than it does from Windows device sales. It would not be surprising if these deals or future deals include clauses which force the manufacturers to produce Windows devices as well.

This legislation is a much needed overhaul of the U.S. Patent system, however some critics say it does not go far enough. The America Invents Act is the fourth attempt by lawmakers to “fix” the inefficient patent process currently in place.

Perhaps the most important change, if not the most controversial, is the move to a “first inventor to file” system apposed to the current “first to invent” policy. The bill provisions for a 1 year grace period for disclosures. Advocates insist that the “first inventor” system is different and more friendly to the independent inventor than the first to file systems employed by most other countries. Opponents of the reform maintain that this distinction does not negate the unfair advantage that large corporations will have with a first to file policy.

The critics cite that large corporations with enough resources will be able to obtain patents that would otherwise be granted to an inventor that does not file immediately because of funding. The USPTO and proponents of the reform state that the fee reductions offered for individual inventors and small entities will null this advantage and add that the corporations will still need to provide “proof” that they are an original inventor through the “Inventor’s Oath or Declaration” required under the new system.

In particular, it designs and manufactures carry case solutions for businesses and consumers. On the other hand, G-Form specializes in cutting edge design solutions for protecting consumer electronics.  G-Form describes itself as a provider of innovative protective and shock-absorbing products.  Popular G-Form products include the Extreme Sleeve for laptops and iPads.

Forward Industries plans to sell their new products featuring RPT to equipment manufacturers, retailers, and other B2B channels. The licensing agreement also allows Forward Industries to sell G-Form brand products in their territory. Forward Industries has high hopes for the agreement to boost their sagging bottom line.

The company announced disappointing 3^rd quarter results as it slipped to a net loss of $0.7 million, or $0.08 per share. This compares to a break even result in the 3^rd quarter of last year.

The exclusive licensing agreement between Forward Industries and G-Form LLC gives Forward exclusive global rights to incorporate G-Form’s RPT technology into their products. The reactive protection technology is based on proprietary G-Form technology and is made with PORON XRD material.

This material can absorb over 90% of the energy from an impact such as a fall, and it also can stiffen to form armor-like protection for delicate electronic devices including iPads, laptops, tablets and more.

The licensing agreement is in line with Forward Industries strategy to leverage their expertise in design, sourcing and logistics into a global brand of accessories for consumer electronics, distributed via a multi channel approach to retail, online, corporate and OEM outlets.

The patented G-Form technology now forms the cornerstone of their strategy to drive innovation in electronics accessories.

Panasonic and Idemitsu formed a joint venture known as Panasonic Idemitsu OLED LightingCo Ltd (PIOL) which will receive the licensing rights under a number of patents that are owned by Universal Display. PIOL will prepay a portion of the royalties in addition to the running royalties which Universal Display will receive from product sales.  Universal Display focuses on the production of light emitting diodes that are used in full color, flat panel displays.

Panasonic, on the other hand, is a  multinational corporation that primarily manufactures consumer electronics, while Idemitsu Kosan is a Japanese petroleum company that owns and operates oil refineries, and it produces and sells oil, petroleum and other petrochemical products. The agreement will license Panasonic Idemitsu to utilize Universal Display technologies and materials in its OLED products.

Thanks to the licensing agreement between Universal Display and the PIOL joint venture between Panasonic and Idemitsu, PIOL will now be able to manufacture and sell a line of novel OLED lighting which use the high performance, high efficiency UniversalPHOLED technology. The joint venture is likely to become a leading player in OLED lighting commercialization.

Universal Display will be involved in a close working relationship with Panasonic Electric Works and Idemitsu Kosan to help them accelerate the commercialization of the new technology.

The licensing agreement marks the beginning of a long term commercial relationship between these major industry players to bring energy efficient lighting products based on OLED technology to the market. OLED is an energy efficient solution that is environmentally friendly, with Universal Display phosphorescent OLED designs demonstrating a 4 to 1 energy advantage compared to other OLED technologies.

Specifically, Microsoft noted that Google wouldn’t participate in the recent Novell patent bid with Microsoft because those patents weren’t related to protecting Android.

Google responded to this accusation with their own accusations against Microsoft in a scathing blog post. Google accused both Microsoft and Apple of conspiring to gain control of patents from Novell and Nortel, and to keep patents from Google in an attempt to undermine Android.

The Android OS is the flashpoint for this patent war, which is not surprising given that it accounts for 40% of the US market and 50% of the worldwide market.

Google also responded to the accusations by Apple and other patent holders that are alleging Android infringes on their intellectual property. Google’s legal defense is quick to paint the battle as the rest of the technology industry ganging up on Android due to its success.

Seen from another point of view, though, some in the industry say that Google doesn’t have the right to accuse others of undermining it when it doesn’t own the patents involved.

Basically, if Google had acquired the patents in question it would have been a non-issue, but since these were acquired by other companies Google is accusing them of conspiracy. Also, from Microsoft’s point of view Google is undermining their business by giving Android away for free.

The fact is that other companies outbid Google for the Nortel patents by banding together in a consortium shows how much these patents are really worth.

The United States Congress is in the process of working on patent reform entitled the America Invents Act.   Some commentators,  such as Forbes columnist Timothy B. Lee,  suggest that Google is one of the leading victims of the US patent system which often hampers innovation, and the current move towards patent reform could help the internet tech giant.