Japanese to patent transparent frog
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Boffins in mutant albino batrachian IP brouhaha Japanese boffins have used artificial insemination to breed mutant frogs with transparent skin. The scientists reckon this will make biological research - not to mention school biology lessons - signifcantly less messy and traumatic, as it will no longer be necessary to cut the slime-filled creatures up in order to examine their innards.â¦
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Holograms and kaleidoscopes of shimmering colors will be part of Japan's latest hi-tech response to the growing number of banknote counterfeiting cases troubling authorities.
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This morning, Kodak confirmed the readiness of a technology with multiple patents apparently attached, that will add a panchromatic element to the single image sensors mass-produced for digital cameras.  Such an element could conceivably increase cameras' sensitivity to light by two to four times.  But BetaNews also discovered evidence of Kodak's plans to cash in on this and other technologies.
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By Kyodo News International, Tokyo  Jan. 30--TOKYO -- The Tokyo District Court ordered Canon Inc. on Tuesday  to pay 33.52 million yen to a former Canon researcher for inventing technology  to prevent images produced by laser printers from deteriorating.
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The United States Patent Office (USPTO) has issued a Notice of Allowance for Patent Protection for a groundbreaking seawater desalination process developed by Long Beach Water Department engineers.
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A group of technology companies is offering to share some of its patents to encourage the development of environmentally friendly technologies.IBM, Nokia, Sony, and bulk-mailing equipment manufacturer Pitney-Bowes have together donated patents to the Eco-patent Commons, an organization set up to share the patents for technology with environmental benefits.Any organization willing to donate a patent for environmentally friendly technology to the commons can join the group. The patents are made available for use by members and nonmembers alike.So far, patents pledged to the commons cover fields such as waste water treatment, air purification, cell-phone recycling and reducing printer ink consumption. IBM has pledged 27 patents, Pitney Bowes two, and Nokia and Sony one each.The Eco-patent Commons will be administered by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a group which brings together CEOs in industries such as cement, electrical utilities, timber, mining and transport.The group wants businesses to donate patents for technologies that have a positive environmental impact, but that are not related to their core business.It hopes that access to patents in the Commons will enable businesses facing environmental challenges that have already been solved by others to develop cleaner, less energy-intensive products as a result.The move is inspired by the success of the free and open-source software sector, where the sharing information has resulted in the creation of many new products, the group said.Together, the companies apply for thousands of patents each year. IBM in particular regularly tops the league tables for&#160;most filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
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Japan tunes in to witness creature's birth.
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Blog: One of the many companies defending itself against a patent lawsuit filed by Visto has settled for an undisclosed amount.
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Blog: The open-source packaged application company, which is releasing the beta of a major product upgrade, is on track to go public, CEO says.
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The software monolith extends an intellectual property plan to all.   Also: U.S. opposes the WTO's online gambling plan & hellip;.  Microsoft will offer a long awaited preview of its search-engine technology & hellip;. and more.
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Read and Write ICO,BMP formats in 100% pure Java   Been a long time in the making, but I've finally gotten round to the final release for 0.7  The library appears to be stable, hence my decision to finalize the current release.  Thanks to Olivier Le Tiec for reporting a bug with irregular icons (width != height), together with the necessary bug fix.  Thanks for using image4j!
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Blog: Apple has filed for several patents that could hint at future iPods that talk to each other and a mouse that moves 3D objects.
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EASTMAN Kodak is expecting a payout of more than $US1 billion this week after winning a patent lawsuit against Sun Microsystems. A jury found Sun&#39;s popular Java software infringed several patents Eastman Kodak bought from Wang Laboratories in late 1997.
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Will the company's next PC look like a Christmas tree? A patent filing sheds some light.
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An idea for a portable device which can see through camouflage is to be developed with government cash.
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EASTMAN Kodak is in line for a $1.06bn (Â£580m) payout after winning a controversial patent lawsuit against Sun Microsystems. A jury has ruled that Sun&#39;s Java software infringes several software patents that Eastman Kodak bought in 1997.
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(InfoWorld) - When Massachusetts' government decided to use Open Document Format (ODF) as the default document file format throughout its agencies, a key concern was that ODF would not allow the visually impaired to use assistive computer technologies. On Wednesday, IBM Corp. said it has helped solve that problem by developing technology that will allow applications based on ODF to better communicate with products used by the blind to access visual information on computer screens. Through Project Missouri, IBM developed application programming interfaces, (APIs) collectively called iAccessible2. These APIs will make it easy for visuals in applications based on ODF and other Web technologies to be interpreted by screen readers that reproduce that information verbally, IBM said. IBM spokesman Ari Fishkind said that in the past it has been hard for screen-reading technology to keep up with the advent of cutting-edge development and file formats such as ODF, AJAX (asynchronous Javascript and XML) and DHTML (dynamic hypertext markup language). The latter two technologies allow increasingly complex visuals to be rendered in Web browsers, and those are difficult to translate for screen readers, he said. iAccessible2 not only will help ODF communicate better with screen readers that assist blind computer users, but it will also allow charts, pictures and other visuals based on AJAX and DHTML to be discerned by the visually impaired through those readers. "It's like a universal decoder ring," he said of iAccessible2. The technology is based on interfaces IBM originally developed with Sun Microsystems Inc. to make programs on Java and Linux platforms accessible to the blind. IBM has donated its work in Project Missouri -- so named because Missouri is called the "Show Me" state -- to the Free Standards Group, a nonprofit group that promotes open-source software. That organization will work on the technology and maintain it as an open standard so anyone can use it, IBM said. Other companies working on the development of iAccessible2 include Sun, Oracle Corp. and SAP AG. Mozilla Corp. also intends to integrate iAccessible2 into its open-source Firefox Web browser, Fishkind added. ODF has been approved as an international standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and is currently in competition with Microsoft's Open XML file format to become the industry's default file format for documents. Open XML is the basis of Microsoft's proprietary Office 2007 productivity suite that also recently was approved by the ISO as a standard. Companies such as IBM, Sun and others are promoting the use of ODF against Microsoft's technology, while others will support both ODF and Open XML just to be on the safe side, in case both are widely adopted. The rivalry between ODF and Open XML heated up last year when Massachusetts put forth a proposal to change its default file format to ODF for all of its state agencies, which would mean they would have to stop using Microsoft Office. This eventually led Microsoft to submit Open XML as a standard as ODF was already going through that process. Increasingly, government agencies are moving their IT platforms to technologies that are considered standard throughout the industry, forgoing some technologies that are seen as proprietary.