Google patent eases book scanning

If there were any doubt that Google is in a prime position to establish a legal monopoly in the world of digital books, the US patent office has snuffed it out, writes The Register.

Earlier this year Google patented a book-scanning technology that can digitise the world's texts without subjecting them to the cruel treatment of a flatbed scanner.

Rather than pressing a book and its binding onto a flatbed - which not only damages the book but so often delivers a sub-par scan - Google's method uses an infrared projector and a pair of infrared cameras that can read, and correct for, the curvature of the page.

Illumina, the San Diego-based developer of genetic analysis systems, has filed a patent infringement suit in federal court in Madison against Affymetrix, the Santa Clara -based maker of semiconductor-based 'GeneChip technology, states xconomy.

The suit asserts that a variety of array plate products and a related scanner sold by Affymetrix infringe on a patent Illumina was awarded earlier this year for “making and using composite arrays for the detection of a plurality of target analytes”.

An array plate enables scientists to analyse many gene samples at the same time.

Supply chain management software and services provider i2 Technologies has filed a patent suit against Oracle in the US District Court of Texas alleging infringement of 11 of its patents related to supply chain management and other enterprise software applications, reports CBRonline.

The company says Oracle has infringed patents related to process planning, managing factory planning systems, computer security, managing applications across multiple domains, intelligent order promising, managing multi-taxonomy environments, value chain management, and extreme capacity management.

It is seeking monetary damages, royalty payments, and an injunction to block the infringement of its patents.