It's never clear how a company plans on implementing a given patent, but Sony's patent application for a haptic touchscreen composed of "tactile pixels" lists former Sony Computer Entertainment chief Phil Harrison as the inventor and makes several references to potential use in "a game device" and to "game events," so it's a safe bet that it was at least developed with the PSP in mind. The patent app describes a sophisticated haptic feedback system that goes well beyond the basic rumble of today's device -- the pixels themselves are able to move up and down between two positions, providing direct feedback to user actions. That's certainly an interesting idea, but like all patent news, we're not going to hold out hope for it to surface in a consumer device anytime soon -- but we're willing to be surprised, you know?

[Via PSP Fanboy]

We first heard of Typhoon Touch Technologies back in December when the company sued Dell and Motion Computing for infringing two of its patents on touchscreen computers, and armed with favorable settlements from Motion Computing and Electrovaya, Typhoon's gone ahead and joined a host of other companies to the Dell suit. Roll call: would Apple, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Lenovo, Panasonic, HTC, Palm, Samsung, Nokia, and LG all report to Eastern District of Texas, please? Lunch will not be provided.

[Via iTWire]

Sorting out the various Microsoft / Alcatel-Lucent patent infringement cases isn't exactly fun or easy, but here's another Post-It for that chart we know you're keeping at home: US District Judge Marilyn Huff has just upheld an earlier $368M damages ruling against Microsoft, and calculated that MS owes A-L a total of $512M for infringing those video-encoding patents that are obviously still so relevant to the proceedings in these cases. That's not the same as that earlier ruling that A-L hadn't infringed an MS patent, mind you -- and Redmond says it's going to appeal this decision as well, so this giant mess isn't going anywhere soon. Hey, guys? We're betting that working out a cross-licensing agreement would be way cheaper than all these legal fees you're racking up, you know? Just a thought. Okay, keep fighting. We totally care.

Klausner Technologies' litigious ways have already proven successful with Vonage, and it now looks like the company has got what it wanted out of Apple as well, which it had sued (along with AT&T) back in December over the iPhone's Visual Voicemail feature. As Reuters reports, both Apple and AT&T have agreed to license Klausner's patents relating to Visual Voicemail, and settle the lawsuit that was brought against them, although any other details are expectedly light at the moment. It seems that Klausner isn't quite content to sit on its patents just yet, however, with Reuters also reporting that the company is "in discussions" with both Comcast and Cablevision about them using the very same technology.

[Via CNET News.com]

We can't say we know exactly what Microsoft has in mind with this patent application for a mobile device with a slide-out keyboard, flip-up screen, and a numeric keypad, but apparently it's based around the idea that users won't have to understand the inner functions of a computer if provided with enough hardware controls. According to the application, "in device mode, the computing system truly assumes the look and feel of a less intimidating multi-media device, rather than that of a sometimes more intimidating computer." Similarly, the keypad lets you simply start dialing to use the phone -- all very well and good, but we've got a feeling most people would rather figure out how to use a smaller handheld than cart this monster around.

[Via Unwired View, thanks Staska]

You kvetch enough about that ultrathin candybar taking up too much room in those über-tight Emo-style jeans -- we know you'd throw a fit if you had to tote around a mobile akin to a rolling pin. Nevertheless, that's not stopping Nokia's wildly imaginative R&D team from throwing out a patent app for a cylindrical cellphone. Granted, we are digging the movable materials and the potential for a fairly wide display, but unless we get some sort of spray can holster from The Home Depot, how else are we supposed to carry this thing without embarrassing ourselves?

Just an update on that Vizio vs. the world tiff, one of the major shareholders of the company and major manufacturer for the brand, Taiwan-based Amtran, chimes in that it already paid royalties for the disputed MPEG-2 patents between the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008. It's important to note that the company apparently had not seen the details of the lawsuit yet and couldn't give details, but we'll see how this affects things between the cheap HDTV manufacturer and MPEG LA.

It has taken long enough, but the US Supreme Court has finally ruled in the patent royalties case between Quanta Computer and LG Electronics. Justice Clarence Thomas noted that "because the exhaustion doctrine applies to method patents and because the license authorizes the sale of components that substantially embody the patents in suit, the sale exhausted all patents," essentially hammering down any of LG's lingering hopes to extract additional royalties from Quanta (or anyone else tangled up in a similar situation). Put simply, the court ruled that LG couldn't solicit more royalties from firms buying LG-provided Intel products, of which Intel had already paid patent royalties on. So much for double dipping in the royalties pool, huh?

In an extremely brief statement, Acer says to have "settled all ongoing patent litigation with HP." The confidential settlement wraps up months of legal wrangling that kicked off in March of 2007 when HP accused Acer of infringing upon 5 HP patents related to "DVD editing, processing ability, and power consumption and efficiency." Acer then countersued, and so on. While it's unclear if any fault was admitted, we're certain that a handful of patent lawyers from both sides are sipping at their 60-year old Macallan in a fit of haughty disdain for corporate executives at this very moment.

It's no secret the rest of the display industry hasn't been happy with Vizio shaking up the low end with its cheap HDTVs, and now Mitsubishi and others have joined in a lawsuit accusing the manufacturer of refusing to license necessary patents. The 15 patents allegedly violated are for MPEG-2 compression that Mitsu, Sony, Samsung, Philips, Thomson, JVC and Columbia University of New York claim Vizio refuses to license. Vizio says it don't need no stinking licenses, since its suppliers already have them and it believes these licenses extend to its products. MPEG-LA also filed a similar suit against Target's TruTech house brand of televisions; while we'll have to wait for a ruling on the case to see who is right, it seems if they can't compete with these lower prices, other manufacturers will make sure cheap HDTVs cost more to make. For its part, Vizio says it does not believe this suit will have a materially adverse impact on its business, so for now, let the low-price flat screens roll.

Read - Mitsubishi, Samsung Sue Vizio Over Video Patents
Read - VIZIO Comments on MPEG-2 Lawsuit By Electronics Competitors

Okay, so remember two months ago when a jury in the District Court for the Southern District of California ruled that Microsoft had infringed two Alacatel-Lucent patents and that MS owed A-L some $367M? Well, a different jury in the same court today ruled that Alcatel-Lucent didn't infringe on four patents that Microsoft was crying over, that one of Microsoft's video-encoding patents is invalid, and the Microsoft didn't infringe on another Alcatel-Lucent patent. Got all that? Yeah, it's confusing, in an extraordinarly dull sort of way -- and it's just the latest twist and turn in this case, which has been going on since 2006 and features around 10 hotly-disputed patents. Don't worry, though, the good times don't appear to be ending soon: there's an appeal of that first decision coming up, and you know we'll be there sound asleep to let you know what happens.

Nokia's always coming up with some new harebrained scheme for cramming a gargantuan camera lens into one of its new phones -- trust us, if the Finnish phone giant could accomplish this task by breaking into Fort Knox or compromising your precious bodily fluids, it would. The latest effort by Nokia comes in the form of a patent that might point the way to an upcoming video phone, possibly the N85, which could give current compact shooters a run for their money. Current thinking on that device is that it'll be a video-oriented successor to the N96, with a WQVGA screen and a 5 (or maybe even 8) megapixel camera. It's mostly conjecture at this point, but we hope Nokia accomplishes it with a thinner device than we're looking at in this patent.

The US Patent and Trademark Office has revealed a mammoth document that can only be described as The iPhone Patent, a 371-page spectacular that covers Apple's handheld multi-touch UI paradigm in excruciating detail. Many of the mocked-up screen shots depicted in the paperwork are dead ringers for screens that we're well acquainted with in the production phone, while others represent ideas that either haven't finished cooking or eventually found their way into the Cupertino circular file (follow the break for a picture of a home screen with dedicated "Blog" and dictionary apps, for instance). The application also mentions "modules" for video conferencing, GPS, and other currently non-existent (though widely expected) functionality. And in case there's any doubt over who was responsible for this compendium of legalese, industrial design, and technical diagrams, one only need look at the header of page 1: "Jobs et al." Yep, Steve himself wasn't the least bit shy about taking credit atop an entire column of company A-listers for inventing the iPhone's trademark user interface, which we're guessing came about from a mix of equal parts truth, ego, and ass-kissing from the legal department down the hall. Seriously though, if you're Scott Forstall down there at number two on the Inventors list, what are you going to do -- go boardroom showdown all John Sculley-style?

[Via Cellpassion]