New Patent Application for Car-to-Car Surveillance
Ford has a new patent application for a system where cars monitor each other’s speeds, and then report then to some central authority.
Slashdot thread.
Entries Tagged "patents"
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Amazon Patents Measures to Prevent In-Store Comparison Shopping
Amazon has been issued a patent on security measures that prevents people from comparison shopping while in the store. It’s not a particularly sophisticated patent—it basically detects when you’re using the in-store Wi-Fi to visit a competitor’s site and then blocks access—but it is an indication of how retail has changed in recent years.
What’s interesting is that Amazon is on the other side of this arms race. As an on-line retailer, it wants people to walk into stores and then comparison shop on its site. Yes, I know it’s buying Whole Foods, but it’s still predominantly an online retailer. Maybe it patented this to prevent stores from implementing the technology.
It’s probably not nearly that strategic. It’s hard to build a business strategy around a security measure that can be defeated with cellular access.
Apple Patents Collecting Biometric Information Based on Unauthorized Device Use
Apple applied for a patent earlier this year on collecting biometric information of an unauthorized device user. The obvious application is taking a copy of the fingerprint and photo of someone using a stolen smartphone.
Note that I have no opinion on whether this is a patentable idea or the patent is valid.
EDITED TO ADD (9/13): There is potential prior art in the comments.
NSA Patents
Details on the patents issued to the NSA.
NSA Patents Available for License
There’s a new article on NSA’s Technology Transfer Program, a 1990s-era program to license NSA patents to private industry. I was pretty dismissive about the offerings in the article, but I didn’t find anything interesting in the catalog. Does anyone see something I missed?
My guess is that the good stuff remains classified, and isn’t “transferred” to anyone.
Slashdot thread.
Former NSA Director Patenting Computer Security Techniques
Former NSA Director Keith Alexander is patenting a variety of techniques to protect computer networks. We’re supposed to believe that he developed these on his own time and they have nothing to do with the work he did at the NSA, except for the parts where they obviously did and therefore are worth $1 million per month for companies to license.
No, nothing fishy here.
EDITED TO ADD (8/14): Some more commentary.
The NSA's Patents
Here are all the NSA’s patents, in one searchable database.
If you find something good, tell us all in the comments.
The TQP Patent
One of the things I do is expert witness work in patent litigations. Often, it’s defending companies against patent trolls. One of the patents I have worked on for several defendants is owned by a company called TQP Development. The patent owner claims that it covers SSL and RC4, which it does not. The patent owner claims that the patent is novel, which it is not. Despite this, TQP has managed to make $45 million off the patent, almost entirely as a result of private settlements. One company, Newegg, fought and lost—although they’re planning to appeal. The story is here.
There is legislation pending in the U.S. to help stop patent trolls. Help support it.
Apple Patents Data-Poisoning
It’s not a new idea, but Apple Computer has received a patent on “Techniques to pollute electronic profiling”:
Abstract: Techniques to pollute electronic profiling are provided. A cloned identity is created for a principal. Areas of interest are assigned to the cloned identity, where a number of the areas of interest are divergent from true interests of the principal. One or more actions are automatically processed in response to the assigned areas of interest. The actions appear to network eavesdroppers to be associated with the principal and not with the cloned identity.
Claim 1:
A device-implemented method, comprising: cloning, by a device, an identity for a principal to form a cloned identity; configuring, by the device, areas of interest to be associated with the cloned identity, the areas of interest are divergent from true areas of interest for a true identity for the principal; and automatically processing actions associated with the areas of interest for the cloned identity over a network to pollute information gathered by eavesdroppers performing dataveillance on the principal and refraining from processing the actions when the principal is detected as being logged onto the network and also refraining from processing the actions when the principal is unlikely to be logged onto the network.
EDITED TO ADD (7/12): Similar technology and concept has already been developed by Breadcrumbs Solutions, and will be out as a free beta software in a few months.
Apple Split-Key Patent
Apple has a patent on splitting a key between a portable device and its power supply.
Clever idea.
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.