Sony Ericsson have filed a patent for a water, dust and sand resistant removable cellphone case, the focus of which is creating something easy to fit and remove despite having a resilient seal around the snap-on cap.  They've also chosen to illustrate the application with possibly the worst images I've seen from such a document; seriously, I'm thinking they must've ... continued »

Another day, another patent, and if it was any company other than Samsung you could ask why they're concentrating on so much future tech instead of pushing phones for today out of the door.  However Samsung had dozens of cellphones on show at the Mobile World Congress, and so I suppose feel quite justified playing around with 3D holographic displays; ... continued »

Samsung are taking on the thorny challenge of cellphone gaming with an ambitious, swinging-screen concept that presents a standard-looking clamshell handset which can be twisted into a game-friendly joypad layout.  The patent documents a cellphone the inner screen of which is separate from both halves of the casing, and can swivel out to clip into place by the main hinge; the device is ... continued »

Recent patents filed by Apple indicate the next generation of gesture-based multi-touch support that hints at how the long-awaited cut, copy & paste functionality will be added to the iPhone.  In a document titled "Gesturing with a multipoint sensing device" Apple describe pre-defined gesture sets called "advanced multitouch", including cutting and pasting via a three-fingered inward or outward splay on the screen ... continued »

Why negotiate when you can litigate; that seems to be the message from BlackBerry maker RIM, who have taken Motorola for a trip to the courthouse over alleged patent infringements and "exorbitant fees".  Apparently Motorola "is demanding exorbitant royalties...for patents that Motorola claims are essential to various standards for mobile wireless telecommunications and wireless computing that RIM practices", including technology ... continued »

Unwired View has been digging around the patents office in search of BlackBerry tidbits, and come up with a couple of filings that might indicate which direction the smartphone company is heading in with its upcoming 9xxx-series and consumer handsets.  The first, which included the illustration you see here, is titled "Handheld mobile communication device with movable display/cover member" and details ... continued »

Chalk this up to another obvious thing that's now been patented: Networks In Motion (NIM) have been granted exclusive rights to the system of delivering ratings, information and more, from a server, regarding a point-of-interest (POI) located using a GPS-enabled mobile device.  The patent, titled "Point of Interest Spatial Rating Search Method and System", basically describes a situation where a user ... continued »

Nokia is facing a lawsuit over contested patents held by German firm IP-Com, purchased last year from Bosch and their use offered to the Finnish firm for a staggering €12bn ($17.77bn).  Claiming the patents are "invalid" and contesting their alleged infringement, Nokia are promising to "vigorously defend" the case through the courts.  IP-Com is almost half-owned by private equity company Fortress ... continued »

We all know better than to read too much into patent applications, but here's one filed by Motorola that my poor over-stressed pockets would really like to see come to fruition.  Coyly titled a "User Interface System" it details a cellphone that has either a rollable e-ink display, rollable keyboard, or both, together with a very clever way of keeping ... continued »

You guessed it; Apple is getting sued over iPhone concepts. Minerva Industries served papers to Apple and satellite phone company Atlantic RT for patent infringement entitled “Mobile Entertainment and Communication Device,” where the company was recently awarded the United Sates patent No. 7,321,783 – beating out both firms. continued »