It looks like at least a few of Google's lawyers who specialize in patent law are about to get some work to do. Google - along with Adobe - has been sued by a company named Textscape because the search giant allegedly violated a patent Textscape was granted in 1998.
It looks like some of Facebook's lawyers will soon be making a trip to Delaware. A small company called WhoGlue, which is based in Baltimore, has sued the large social network over a patent WhoGlue was granted in July of 2007.
In early 2004, Google's lawyers didn't have nearly enough to do. A patent on the design of Google's homepage (AKA its "[g]raphical user interface for a display screen of a communications terminal") that they applied for at that time was granted Tuesday.
Let us know what you think in the comments section.
Update: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has reportedly granted Microsoft's motion to stay an injunction that would prohibit the software giant from selling Word. The injunction had an effective date of Oct. 10, but the motion to stay blocks the injunction until the appeal process is complete, according to The Microsoft Blog.
A set of product placement ads for Microsoft's Bing ran during NBC's The Philanthropist. The ads showed two of the characters from the actual show in scenes in which Bing was being used - clearly ads, but still integrated with the actual program.
A patent for "systems and methods for improving the ranking of news articles" was granted to Google yesterday. It was originally filed in 2003.
All the way back in 2003, Google filed a patent application for "Methods and systems for assisted network browsing. That patent has been granted this week. The patent abstract reads:
A patent application filed by Yahoo is causing a bit of a stir within the SEO community. The patent is for an "Automated System to Improve Search Engine Optimization on Web Pages." The abstract for the patent reads as follows:
Bill Slawski at SEO By the Sea talked about a very interesting concept today regarding a social fashion search engine in which you would submit measurements and create a 3D model of your body to create a profile. You would then more easily be able to shop for clothes and shoes online based on a variety of variables.
Microsoft has filed a patent for a "Metered Pay-As-You-Go Computing Experience." The exact words of the filing's abstract are as follows:
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