Archive for February, 2007

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User customized shading of a graphical user interface

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

Title:  Method and apparatus for user customized shading of a graphical user interface

Type:  issued patent

Patent number:  7,184,056

Issue date:  February 27, 2007

Filing date:  November 20, 2002

Link to PDF:    (12 pages)

AIPW Summary:  A user can select the shading of the GUI elements on the screen. The shading can be adjusted by using a user interface widget, such as a slider, a radio-dial knob, or a digital display with adjustment buttons. The various elements of the GUI are adjusted based on the selected shading level.

The patent shows screen shots from Final Cut Pro. This patent is a little different in that it uses actual screen shot photographs, instead of line drawing reproductions of screen shots. Generally speaking, photographs can only be used in a patent application when there would be no other way to show what the invention is.

Posted in Issued Apple patents, Miscellaneous Apple-related software patents | No Comments »

Trademark: Triple Play

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

Mark:  Triple Play

Application number:  78939417

Filing date:  July 24, 2006

Filing basis:  intent to use

Date of first use:  N/A

Status:  Office Action issued requesting clarification of the good/services listed; response not yet filed

Goods/Services:  Retail store services in the field of entertainment, namely, musical, audio and audiovisual works and related merchandise, provided via the internet and other computer and electronic communication networks; data storage and retrieval services; computerized data storage services; electronic storage and retrieval of documents, data, images, audio, video and audiovisual works; information, advisory and consultancy services relating to all the aforesaid

Providing databases and directories in the fields of music, video, news, sports, games, cultural events, entertainment, and arts and leisure via communications networks; providing information in the fields of music, video, news, sports, games, cultural events, entertainment, and arts and leisure via communications networks; providing websites featuring audio, video, graphics, text and other multimedia content in the fields of music, video, news, sports, games, cultural events, entertainment, and arts and leisure

Posted in Apple trademarks | No Comments »

Apple and Cisco settle iPhone trademark dispute

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

In what turns out to be a non-event for all those hoping for something juicy, Apple and Cisco settled their dispute over the iPhone trademark. See Apple’s press release. See Cisco’s press release. The interesting thing about these two press releases is not the fact that they are identically worded – look at how the registered trademark symbols (that would be the ® symbols) are used. In Apple’s press release, they use the ® only for Apple, and in Cisco’s press release they use the ® only for Cisco. A rather ironic result in a trademark dispute.

Posted in Apple patent-related litigation, Apple trademarks, iPhone-related patents | No Comments »

Wimped out on running today

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

I did get up on time with the alarm, at 5:45am. Yes, I know – too damned early for most people. This morning, I was one of them. Got up, took a very unhealthy chocolate chip muffin out of the freezer to thaw for breakfast (if you microwave them, the chocolate chips get frickin’ hot!), and went back to bed. Didn’t think I’d fall back to sleep, but I did. I felt much better, since I really could use the extra sleep. We’ll see about tomorrow – supposed to be rather windy, with wind chills possibly dropping the temperature below my 20° threshold.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Treacherous running

Wednesday, February 21st, 2007

With morning temps actually above freezing this morning (after mid-40s yesterday), I decided to run outside since I figured most of the thick ice would have melted. I was wrong. There was still plenty of thick ice – some white, some black, some white speckled with black, and some a shade of gray that really ought not exist. That was the easy stuff to spot at 6:15AM. The difficult stuff to see was the slick spots next to the big piles of ice, especially those areas that looked dry but still had a sparkle in them. I only almost fell about three times. Which really isn’t all that bad. Navigating around that stuff was not pleasant – I figured it added at lieast 5 minutes to my run, which had already started late. At least the walk home from the bus allowed me to see that tomorrow morning should be much better.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Transparent compatibility and adaptation to differing format implementations in a computer system

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

Title:  Transparent compatibility and adaptation to differing format implementations in a computer system

Type:  issued patent

Patent number:  7,180,526

Issue date:  February 20, 2007

Filing date:  April 1, 2004 (priority to May 10, 1996)

Link to PDF:    (7 pages)

AIPW Summary:  A method for communicating between an application program and a display device. The application generates output in a first format to a first frame buffer, and the display generates its output based on the contents of a second frame buffer (with data in a second format). This invention translates (transforms) data from the first format to the second format, thereby making the application output display format independent of the display device format. So application output formats can change or display formats can change without requiring a change in the other.

Posted in Issued Apple patents, Miscellaneous Apple-related software patents | No Comments »

Portable iPod dock connector with lanyard

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

Title:  Device harness

Type:  design patent

Patent number:  D537,074

Issue date:  February 20, 2007

Filing date:  March 28, 2006 (priority to August 26, 2004)

Link to PDF: (5 pages)

AIPW Summary: A design for a portable iPod dock connector with a lanyard (cord) threaded through the bottom of the connector. It looks more like a lanyard for an iPod Nano, but not the Lanyard Headphones.

Related case:  D527,723    (4 pages) – This design patent covers only the dock connector portion, without the lanyard.

Posted in Apple design patents, iPod-related hardware patents | No Comments »

Auto stacking of time related images

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

Title:  Auto stacking of time related images

Patent application publication number:  20070035551

Publication date:  February 15, 2007

Filing date:  June 15, 2005 (priority to October 6, 2004)

Link to PDF:    (16 pages)

AIPW Summary:  Groups of digital images are arranged into stacks for display purposes. This is particularly useful when going through large numbers of digital photos. When stacked (referred to as a contracted state), one representative image is shown on top of the stack, and all of the images are displayed in a second (expanded) state. Each image in the stack has a rank value, with the highest ranked image on top, and images may be promoted or demoted through the stack. A stack can be generated manually or automatically based on attributes selected by the user.

Posted in Non-iPod video-related patents, Published Apple patent applications | No Comments »

Docking a portable electronic device with a planar-like configuration that operates in multiple orientations

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

Title:  Methods and apparatuses for docking a portable electronic device that has a planar like configuration and that operates in multiple orientations

Patent application publication number:  20070035917

Publication date:  February 15, 2007

Filing date:  August 9, 2005

Link to PDF:    (25 pages)

AIPW Summary:  A docking system for a portable electronic device that can be docked in multiple orientations (i.e., vertical and horizontal). The dock and the device each have an interfacing system, and the two interfacing systems can communicate to exchange data and to power the device. The interfacing system can include contact platforms (with a variety of physical connectors), non-contact platforms (via induction), or a combination of the two. As long as the interfacing systems of the dock and the device are “operatively coupled” with each other, the physical orientation of the device relative to the dock does not matter (paragraph 0056).

Posted in iPhone-related patents, iPod-related hardware patents, Miscellaneous Apple hardware-related patents, Published Apple patent applications | No Comments »

Method and apparatus for implementing a sleep proxy for services on a network

Monday, February 19th, 2007

Title:  Implementing a sleep proxy for services on a network

Patent application publication number:  20070038877

Publication date:  February 15, 2007

Filing date:  October 16, 2006 (priority to August 20, 2003)

Link to PDF:    (8 pages)

AIPW Summary:  Existing networkable devices often have a power saving mode (e.g., a sleep mode). To wake a device from a sleep mode, a special “wake up” packet is sent. However, without the wake up packet, a sleeping device would not be able to respond to requests made of the device. A sleep proxy is activated for the device and responds to requests made of the sleeping device, if the proxy is able to handle the request. If the proxy is not able to handle the request, then the proxy wakes the device to directly handle the request.

Posted in Mac OS-related software patents, Published Apple patent applications | No Comments »

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