Microsoft is just not having much luck with the publicity of their latest $300 million ad campaign. I’m sure you are well aware of the Seinfeld fiasco. In case you’re not, Microsoft kicked off this huge campaign with a pair of long and drawn out ads featuring Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

Google’s quest for global domination organization is taking a step further as it moves out into the ocean. Yes, Google intends to have a presence not only in outer space, but in the sea as well.

Would you believe that Microsoft has just patented the concept utilized by the "page up" and "page down" keys commonly found on computer keyboards? That seems to be the case according to U.S. Patent number 7,415,666.

Dell thought they could take the phrase "cloud computing" and keep it for themselves. It appears (for the time being at least) that they will have no such luck.

The company filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to trademark the term, but its request has ultimately been denied because it has been established as a generic term.

The week is not off to a great start for Google.  GraphOn Corporation issued a release bright and early this morning stating that it is suing the search giant for patent infringement.

eBay and MercExchange have reached a settlement that finally puts to rest a patent dispute that at one time went as high as the U.S. Supreme Court and that started back in 2001.

eBay and MercExchange had been involved in litigation over MercExchange’s patents and eBay’s online auctions and fixed price related ecommerce operations.

Amazon.com is a decent place to shop for books, CDs, or whatever else you like.  It’s also a good site to read reviews, even if you do your buying elsewhere.  But the company has once again embarrassed itself by receiving an obvious patent.

Information Week has reported that in June of 07 Google filed a patent application, which has just become available, outlining a “method of optical character recognition in digital images.” The application seems to cover both static images as well as video. The ability to do this could radically change a number of existing Google services as well as again change the way the Internet marketing world interacts with images and video.

Google has filed 3 new patents for its Google Notebook service which suggest plans to use Notebook listings as an additional factor in calculating Google’s search engine rankings.

Bill Slawski reported on the new Google Notebook patents; highlighting the points in the 3rd patent (Presenting Search Result Information) that refer to potential ties between Google Notebook content and Google’s ranking algorithm.

Can’t be bothered to type “goodbye” at the end of IM conversation?  That’s okay – Microsoft wants to do it for you.  The real kicker, though, is that Microsoft also wants to patent this practice.

There is little doubt that patents are driving innovation. However, those same patents can hinder the progress if applied incorrectly.

Several patent applications made by Google point toward a product that allows people to drop specific advertisements into their online communications.

Verizon is first on a London-based company’s list of lawsuits to file (or licensing agreements to be extracted) after winning the rights to a 1999 patent for location-based search. Next up: any online service offering local search services.