Bicycle camming mechanism: US Pat. No. 7,665,928

February 26, 2010 Leave a comment

U.S. Patent No. 7,665,928, issued on February 23, 2010 to Crank Brothers, Inc. of Laguna Beach, CA, discloses a quick-release camming mechanism for bicycles.

According to the ’928 patent, quick release camming mechanisms for mounting the wheel and/or the seat of a bicycle to the frame can be difficult to close and open, especially for people with less hand strength.  The patent discloses a two-lever configuration which, according to the patent, is substantially easier to open and close, making it easier to fix a flat tire or to adjust the seat height.

According to the company’s website, Crank Brothers is a small company based in a Laguna Beach studio.  Besides the ’928 patent, the USPTO database lists three other U.S. patents owned by Crank Brothers, directed to a bicycle wheel, a bicycle pedal and crank apparatus, and to a bicycle tire air pump. 

Filed under ip, Mechanical, orange county, patent Tagged with , , ,

In the news: Vubiq Inc.

February 26, 2010 Leave a comment

On February 24th, Vubiq Inc. of Aliso Viejo CA won third place in the 2010 Fast Pitch competition held by Tech Coast Angels – Los Angeles in which a selected group of companies are judged on their elevator pitches and responses in a question-and-answer session, with scores based on presentation and fundability.

According to their website, Vubiq (rhymes with “cubic”) develops and markets products for gigabit-per-second wireless communications over short distances.  According to the USPTO assignment database, Vubiq is the assignee of three published U.S. patent applications and two issued U.S. patents.  Vubiq has recently received a Notice of Allowance for one of their published U.S. patent applications, U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. No. 2009/0207090, entitled “Integrated Antenna and Chip Package and Method of Manufacturing Thereof,” which was published on August 20, 2009:

The issue fee for this application has been paid to the USPTO, so it will likely issue as a U.S. patent in the next few months (with claims which are amended from those in the ’090 publication). 

According to their website, Vubiq “has developed its intellectual property positions around both the core technology and specific applications” of that technology.  They have recently announced a “novel, patent pending waveguide packaging solution” for low-cost, high-volume production of silicon-germanium-based 60 GHz radios.  If it is covered by the claims of the patent that issues from the ’090 published application, Vubiq will soon be able to replace “patent pending” with “patented”. 

 

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Patient-controlled access to medical records: US Pat. No. 7,664,753

February 22, 2010 Leave a comment

U.S. Patent No. 7,664,753, issued on February 16, 2010  to Private Access, Inc. of Irvine, CA, discloses a system to control access to a database containing highly confidential records.

As described in the abstract of the patent, the central premise of the system is that patients have “a fundamental right to the confidentiality of their personal medical records and should control that right through specific, informed consent each time that a party requests to receive them.”  A general object of the ’753 patent is to provide an opportunity for the patient’s informed consent for their medical records to be made available to healthcare providers and trustees, such as health insurance payers, auditors, and the like.

Private Access, Inc. was included in Forbes’ 2009 list of “America’s Most Promising Companies.”  Forbes cited two previously-issued patents  as a significant factor in Private Access’ inclusion in the list (I presume that these are US Pat. Nos. 6,345,260 and 7,028,049), and the ’753 patent may further provide support for this honor. 

In 2009, Private Access entered into a collaboration with Pfizer, Inc. to create a new online community aimed at increasing clinical trial awareness and participation which focuses on patient privacy rights.  Patient concerns regarding the use of their confidential medical records can be a barrier to their participation in clinical trials, and the Private Access-Pfizer collaboration seeks to address these concerns to facilitate finding and enrolling patients for these clinical trials.

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Speech encoding: US Pat. No. 7,660,712

February 14, 2010 Leave a comment

U.S. Patent No. 7,660,712, issued on February 9, 2010 to Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. of Newport Beach, CA, discloses a speech encoder for voice communication systems.

According to the ’712 patent, speech sounds are typically encoded prior to being transmitted to increase the efficiency of bandwidth usage, for example by removing short-term correlations and redundancies.  The ’712 patent discloses using an analysis-by-synthesis coding approach on a speech signal to apply different gain quantization processes to periodic and non-periodic input speech signals.

According to their website, Mindspeed Technologies “designs, develops and sells semiconductor networking solutions for communications applications in enterprise. access, metropolitan and wide area networks.”  According to the USPTO database, Mindspeed was granted 17 U.S. patents in 2009 and 17 in 2008. 

Mindspeed’s financial statements over the past few years show that the company continues to evaluate its intellectual property portfolio to identify patents which are no longer part of its core business to be used to generate revenue by sale or licensing.  For example, the company used patent sales to raise $12.0 million in 2008 and $3.0 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2009.  Such activity is a good way to monetize intellectual property which would otherwise be lying dormant.

Filed under Computers, Electronics, ip, orange county, patent Tagged with , ,

DVR video storage: US Pat. No. 7,660,837

February 14, 2010 Leave a comment

U.S. Patent No. 7,660,837, issued on February 9, 2010 to Broadcom Corp. of Irvine, CA, discloses an apparatus and method of storing video data in a digital video recorder (DVR).

As explained in the ’837 patent, video recordings are typically quite large and are distributed among a large number of memory blocks on the disk drive.  For example, a 2-3 hour high-definition television (HDTV) recording can occupy 15-20 GB of disk space across millions of 4-kB blocks of memory.  The process of repeatedly recording and deleting programs can result in fragmentation, in which the many memory blocks of a given program are distributed in locations across the available memory which are not contiguous with one another.  Having to access these many non-contiguous memory blocks in order to playback a program can result in reduced efficiencies, slower access times, and heightened wear and tear on the disk.  The ’837 patent discloses an apparatus and method which utilizes “indirect” blocks in a way to facilitate the contiguous allocation of memory for larger files, reducing fragmentation.

Broadcom is a Fortune 500 company which provides state-of-the-art, system-on-a-chip and software solutions for computing and networking, digital entertainment, broadband access, and mobile devices.  According to the company website, Broadcom has a broad IP portfolio with over 3,800 U.S. patents addressing wired and wireless transmission of voice, video, and data. 

According to IFI Patent Intelligence, in a ranking of companies receiving the most U.S. patents in 2009, Broadcom was 22nd with 714 patents, an increase of 11% compared to the company’s 2008 tally.  With regard to the number of U.S. patents being issued to OC companies each week, Broadcom is the most prolific by far.  For example, in this past week, Broadcom was issued 17 U.S. patents according to the USPTO database, the ’837 patent being one of them. 

While Broadcom may be considered to be the “800-lb. gorilla” when it comes to issued U.S. patents granted to Orange County companies, my interests lie more with technical innovations resulting from smaller, earlier-stage entepreneurship, so the OC TechInnovation™ blog will focus on such activities. 

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Electrodes for implantable defibrillator: US Pat. No. 7,657,322

February 7, 2010 Leave a comment

U.S. Patent No. 7,657,322, issued on February 2, 2010 to Cameron Health, Inc. of San Clemente, CA, discloses an electrode assembly for a defibrillator implanted subcutaneously outside the patient’s ribcage. 

According to the patent, the electrodes of conventional  implantable cardioverter/defibrillators (ICDs) are directly applied to heart tissue (e.g., via a catheter that passes through the superior vena cava and into one or more endocardial areas of the heart).  Conversely, as described by the patent, the subcutaneous ICD and electrodes can be implanted without exposing heart tissue during the implantation process, and can avoid the expensive implantation techniques and complications of conventional ICDs. 

Cameron Health was also issued two other U.S. patents on the same day as the ’322 patent (U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,657,311 and 7,655,014), both directed to methods of implanting subcutaneous ICDs and their electrodes.  According to the USPTO database, Cameron Health has received 67 U.S. patents, with 11 issued in 2009, 12 in 2008, and 11 in 2007.  With these three U.S. patents in February 2010, the company seems to be on track to have an equally successful 2010, patent-wise.

In 2004, Boston Scientific made an equity investment in Cameron Health, and secured an exclusive option to purchase the company.  In 2006, as part of the approval of Boston Scientific’s acquisition of Guidant Corp., the FTC required Boston Scientific to reform certain contractual rights between Boston Scientific and Cameron Health to limit Boston Scientific’s control over certain Cameron actions and the sharing of nonpublic information about Cameron’s ICD product.

Filed under Electronics, ip, Medical, orange county, patent Tagged with , , ,

Prosthetic knee: US Pat. No. 7,655,050

February 4, 2010 Leave a comment

U.S. Patent No. 7,655,050, issued on February 2, 2010 to Freedom Innovations, LLC of Irvine, CA, discloses a prosthetic knee device that is computer-controlled. 

The patent explains that previous prosthetic knees with computer-controlled actuators were complex and heavy, and that the prosthetic knee disclosed in the patent provides the gait speed adaptability and safety of a computer-controlled knee while being relatively lightweight and simple in design.

Freedom Innovations markets the Plié™ MPC Knee, which is described as a microprocessor-controlled knee that utilizes a proprietary technology to provide a smooth, secure, and natural gait — at any speed, angle, or incline. 

According to their website, the company has 13 U.S. patents and uses their innovative technologies to provide “top-quality, high performance prothetic devices for individuals with lower limb amputations.”  Their website also includes an admirable  mission statement and a set of values that would be well adopted by all businesses. 

Filed under ip, Mechanical, Medical, orange county, patent Tagged with , , ,

In the News: NeoMend

February 1, 2010 Leave a comment

Last week, socaltech.com reported that NeoMend, Inc. of Irvine, CA has raised $30M in a Series D funding round.  According to their website, NeoMend markets a patented hydrogel technology for use in wound sealing, prevention of post-surgical adhesions, and site-specific sustained drug delivery.  NeoMend’s patents include U.S. Patent No. 7,351,249, issued on April 1, 2008.

The ’249 patent describes a biocompatible material which can be used to seal a puncture site in a blood vessel and to seal a suture knot.  According to the USPTO database, NeoMend is listed as the assignee for fourteen U.S. patents, including the one featured here.  Earlier this month, NeoMend also received pre-market approval from the FDA for its ProGEL™ Pleural Air Leak Sealant, for use in lung surgery. 

 

Filed under Chemical, ip, Medical, orange county, patent Tagged with , , ,

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