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U.S. Patents Awarded to Inventors in North Carolina (Feb. 26)
[February 26, 2013]

U.S. Patents Awarded to Inventors in North Carolina (Feb. 26)


(Targeted News Service Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Targeted News Service Targeted News Service ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- The following federal patents were awarded to inventors in North Carolina.

*** Alabama, North Carolina Inventors Develop Patent for Carpenter Bee Traps ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- Brian Robert Blazer, Heflin, Ala., and Bradley Jerome Blazer, Granite Falls, N.C., have developed a patent (8,375,624) for carpenter bee traps.



The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A carpenter bee trap having at least one entrance hole, at least one plenum section connecting the at least one entrance hole to at least one receptacle adapter coupling, and least one removable receptacle attached to at least one receptacle adapter coupling, the at least one removable receptacle made of a material that admits ambient light to a greater extent than the material forming the plenum such that insects entering the trap follow a path of increasing intensity of ambient light that leads them to the receptacle. In one embodiment, existing carpenter bee nests are treated with a disclosed insecticide gel. The insecticide gel consists of a thixotropic, injectable, non-hardening, non-volatile gel blended with a pyrethroid insecticide, in effect converting the bee nest into a trap." The patent application was filed on April 27, 2009 (12/430,148). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=83,75,624.PN.&OS=PN/83,75,624&RS=PN/83,75,624 Written by Amal Ahmed; edited by Jaya Anand.

*** North Carolina Inventor Develops Patent for Drink Bottle with Multiple Drink Dosage Device ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- Philip Andrew Underwood, Hope Mills, N.C., has developed a patent (8,376,134) for a "drink bottle with multiple drink dosage device." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The present invention discloses a bottle for holding a liquid with at least one self dosage compartment for adding a desired solid such as powdered drink mix and the like to liquid such as water in the bottle consisting of a bottom compartment with a top lid and a bottom closure inside the interior space of the bottle to deliver the solid to the liquid and kept in the compartment till user is ready to mix with liquid." The patent application was filed on May 18, 2012 (13/474,861). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=83,76,134.PN.&OS=PN/83,76,134&RS=PN/83,76,134 Written by Amal Ahmed; edited by Jaya Anand.


*** British American Tobacco (Investments) Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- British American Tobacco (Investments), London, has been assigned a patent (8,375,959) developed by four co-inventors for "smoking articles and smokable filler materials therefore." The co-inventors are David John Dittrich, Southampton, United Kingdom, Joseph Peter Sutton, Southampton, United Kingdom, Steven Coburn, Southampton, United Kingdom, and James N. Figlar, Clemmons, N.C.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The invention relates to a smoking article incorporating a smoking material comprising three main components, namely a non-combustible inorganic filler, an alginic binder and aerosol generating means. The smoking material is combined with tobacco material, which may be treated with additional humectant, to provide a smoking article that has an aerosol transfer efficiency ratio of greater than 4.0." The patent application was filed on April 2, 2003 (10/512,712). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=83,75,959.PN.&OS=PN/83,75,959&RS=PN/83,75,959 Written by Amal Ahmed; edited by Jaya Anand.

*** Lenovo Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- Lenovo, Singapore, has been assigned a patent (8,381,304) developed by four co-inventors for an "apparatus and method for assuring secure disposal of a hard disk drive unit." The co-inventors are Daryl Cromer, Cary, N.C., Howard Jeffrey Locker, Cary, N.C., Randall S. Springfield, Chapel Hill, N.C., and Rod D. Waltermann, Rougemont, N.C.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A hard disk drive unit includes a microprocessor programmed to erase data stored within the drive unit if it is determined that a process potentially leading to a misuse of the data stored within the drive unit, and if secure disposal configuration data stored in nonvolatile storage within the drive indicates that the data is to be erased. Such a process includes initializing the drive unit for operation without providing a password matching a password stored in the drive unit, initializing the drive unit in a system not having CMOS configuration data matching the drive unit, and determining that a failure rate within the drive unit exceeds a threshold level." The patent application was filed on July 27, 2006 (11/493,952). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,381,304&OS=8,381,304&RS=8,381,304 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi.

*** North Carolina Inventors Develop Patent for Pickup Bed Tool Tray Apparatus ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- Juan M. Johnson Sr., Durham, N.C., and James A. Hill, Durham, N.C., have developed a patent (8,376,438) for a "pickup bed tool tray apparatus." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The pickup bed tool tray apparatus provides a movable, motorized tray that fits between the inner sides of a pickup bed, just below the bed top. The apparatus is therefore not in the way of storing or carrying anything in the bed. By using the control, the tray may be moved fore and aft, as needed, to best access tools and other equipment that may be carried in the tray." The patent application was filed on Sept. 8, 2011 (13/227,763). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,376,438&OS=8,376,438&RS=8,376,438 Written by Arpi Sharma; edited by Anand Kumar.

*** North Carolina Inventor Develops Patent for Scissor Lift Assembly with Electrified Rods for Forming a Retaining or Barrier Structure ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- Earl F. Gill, Pittsboro, N.C., has developed a patent (8,376,320) for a "scissor lift assembly with electrified rods for forming a retaining or barrier structure." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "An electrified retaining structure is provided for protecting at least a portion of a designated area. The retaining structure comprises a series of spaced apart scissor lift assemblies. Each scissor lift assembly being moveable up and down between an extended position and a retracted position. In addition, the scissor lift assembly includes one or more sets of elongated rods secured to the scissor lift assembly and extending outwardly therefrom. In the extended position, the rods project outwardly from the lift assembly and form a barrier or retaining structure. An electrical power unit is operatively connected to the rods for providing an electrical current to the rods." The patent application was filed on Feb. 21, 2012 (13/400,836). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,376,320&OS=8,376,320&RS=8,376,320 Written by Arpi Sharma; edited by Anand Kumar.

*** North Carolina, South Carolina Inventors Develop Patent for Systems and Methods for Robust Video Signature with Area Augmented Matching ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- Matthew G. Berry, Raleigh, N.C., and Schuyler E. Eckstrom, Beaufort, S.C., have developed a patent (8,380,045) for "systems and methods for robust video signature with area augmented matching." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Systems and methods are provided for generating unique signatures for digital video files to locate video sequences within a video file comprising calculating a frame signature for each frame of a first video; and for a second video: calculating a frame signature for each frame of the second video for corresponding first video frame signatures, calculating a frame distance between each of the corresponding video frame signatures, determining video signature similarity between the videos, and searching within a video signature similarity curve to determine a maximum corresponding to the first video within the second video. The method further applies area augmentation to the video signature similarity curve to determine a maximum from among a plurality of maxima corresponding to the first video file within the second video file." The patent application was filed on Oct. 9, 2008 (12/248,596). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,380,045&OS=8,380,045&RS=8,380,045 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi.

*** Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, Lund, Sweden, has been assigned a patent (8,381,198) developed by William Lennon, Cary, N.C., and Oystein Dahlsveen, Raleigh, N.C., for "systems, methods and computer program products for safety checking executable application programs in a module." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "An application program for a central processing unit of a computer module is developed. Source code for the application is written and debugged. The source code for the application program is then compiled and assembled, to provide an executable application program. The executable application program is loaded into the computer module. Safety check executable code is inserted into the executable application program that is loaded into the computer module, to prevent the executable application program from reading, writing and jumping outside a designated memory area of the computer module. The executable application program with the safety check code inserted therein is stored in the computer module." The patent application was filed on Aug. 15, 2005 (11/203,689). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,381,198&OS=8,381,198&RS=8,381,198 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi.

*** North Carolina Inventor Develops Patent for Five Part Herbal Cleanse Protocol (Detoxifying Tea, Tonifying Tea, Relaxing Tea, Parasite Tea, Intestinal Tea) in Conjunction with Yoga and a Vegan Alkalinizing Food and Juice Cleanse Program ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- Tatianna Sanabria, Cary, N.C., has developed a patent (8,377,449) for a "five part herbal cleanse protocol (detoxifying tea, tonifying tea, relaxing tea, parasite tea, intestinal tea) in conjunction with yoga and a vegan alkalinizing food and juice cleanse program." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "An herbal cleanse formulation comprising five different herbal teas: a parasite tea, an intestinal tea, a detoxifying tea, a tonifying tea, and a relaxing tea. The parasite tea comprises areca seed, black plum, Sichuan pepper, and daikon radish. The intestinal tea comprises mountain hawthorn berry, magnolia bark, senna leaf, aloe, prunus, bitter orange, rhubarb, and licorice. The detoxifying tea comprises cyperus, Chinese angelica, trichosanthes, honeysuckle, forsythia, burdock fruit, dandelion, gardenia, coptis, and mustard seed. The tonifying tea comprises goji berries, red reishi, rehmannia, polygonum, astragalus, ginseng, codonopsis, and schizandra. The relaxing tea comprises ginger, lily bulbs, mimosa tree bark, acorus, sour jujube seeds, yuan zhi, and mint. The herbal cleanse formulation are to be taken at specific times of the day for a determined number of days in a specific protocol in conjunction with a vegan alkalinizing diet and incorporating Kundalini yoga." The patent application was filed on Feb. 7, 2011 (12/931,612). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,377,449.PN.&OS=PN/8,377,449&RS=PN/8,377,449 Written by Kusum Sangma; edited by Anand Kumar.

*** Ericsson Assigned Patent for Method and Apparatus for Merging Bit Probability Information in Serial Localization with Indecision ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden, has been assigned a patent (8,379,774) developed by Ali Khayrallah, Cary, N.C., for a "method and apparatus for merging bit probability information in serial localization with indecision." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Probability information generated by a decoder as part of the symbol decoding process is fed back for use by a multi-stage demodulator that employs serial localization with indecision so that the accuracy of the final symbol decision generated by the multi-stage demodulator is improved. The multi-stage demodulator has one or more non-final stages operable to localize a search for the final symbol decision of a received signal using centroid-based values as constellation points instead of modulation symbols associated with the received signal. A final stage of the multi-stage demodulator is operable to determine the final symbol decision using a subset of the modulation symbols as constellation points. The decoder is operable to decode the final symbol decision, including generating probability information related to the modulation symbols. The multi-stage demodulator is operable to revise the final symbol decision based on the probability information related to the modulation symbols." The patent application was filed on Oct. 30, 2009 (12/609,466). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,379,774&OS=8,379,774&RS=8,379,774 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi.

*** Ericsson Assigned Patent for Method and Apparatus for Enhanced Channel Estimation in Wireless Communication Systems ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden, has been assigned a patent (8,379,773) developed by Leonid Krasny, Cary, N.C., and Jiann-Ching Guey, Cary, N.C., for a "method and apparatus for enhanced channel estimation in wireless communication systems." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method and apparatus for channel estimation based on extracting channel information, including noise spectral density, from a received signal, and advantageously exploiting that information for improved channel estimation accuracy. One embodiment is directed to a method of generating channel estimates in a wireless communication receiver, for processing a received communication signal. The method includes generating first channel estimates from a set of pilot observations obtained from the received communication signal, using a first channel estimation process that is not dependent on knowledge of channel statistics. The method further includes estimating channel statistics and a noise variance from the first channel estimates, and generating second channel estimates from the set of pilot observations, the estimated channel statistics, and the estimated noise variance, using a second channel estimation process that is dependent on knowledge of the channel statistics." The patent application was filed on June 23, 2009 (12/489,924). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,379,773&OS=8,379,773&RS=8,379,773 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi.

*** Ericsson Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 - Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden, has been assigned a patent (8,379,709) developed by Dennis Hui, Cary, N.C., and Kambiz Zangi, Chapel Hill, N.C., for a "channel estimation and equalization for hard-limited signals." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The present invention provides a method and apparatus for channel estimation when the amplitude of a received signal is hard-limited. A channel estimator computes amplitude estimates for the received signal based on the phase samples of the received signal and previous channel estimates. The amplitude estimates may comprise the expected values of the amplitude given the phase samples and the initial channel estimates. The channel estimator then computes revised channel estimates based on the amplitude estimates and the phase samples. The process may be performed iteratively to refine the channel estimates during each iteration." The patent application was filed on Sept. 4, 2008 (12/204,217). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,379,709&OS=8,379,709&RS=8,379,709 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi.

*** Japan Science and Technology Agency Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- Japan Science and Technology, Saitama, Japan, has been assigned a patent (8,379,304) developed by Takayuki Nishizaka, Tokyo, and Ryohei Yasuda, Chapel Hill, N.C., for a "dark field microscope and its adjusting method." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A dark field microscope is capable of providing illumination with a long focal distance condenser lens having a low numerical aperture without the need for a diaphragm for an objective lens. A method is provided for effectively adjusting its optical axis. In particular embodiments, the dark field microscope includes; a light source for emitting illumination light; a light collecting optical system including a light collecting side condenser lens for collecting the illumination light from the light source to illuminate an observation sample; and an image forming optical system including an objective lens for receiving scattered light from the observation sample to form a magnified image of the sample, the light collecting side condenser lens is a long focal distance lens, and a light shielding member for shielding the illumination light is provided on a back focal plane or at an image forming center of it in the image forming optical system." The patent application was filed on May 23, 2007 (12/301,858). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=83,79,304.PN.&OS=PN/83,79,304&RS=PN/83,79,304 Written by Kusum Sangma; edited by Anand Kumar.

*** Ericsson Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden, has been assigned a patent (8,379,782) developed by Paul Wilkinson Dent, Pittsboro, N.C., and Leonid Krasny, Cary, N.C., for a "mobile radio channel estimation." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The described method characterizes scattering objects in a wireless channel. The present invention determines non-equally spaced path delays and Doppler parameters for a plurality of scattering objects in a wireless channel. More particularly, a frequency-to-time transform applied to a plurality of OFDM pilot samples received over a plurality of OFDM symbol periods generates a set of non-equally spaced path delays and a set of associated complex delay coefficients. Further, a time-to-frequency transform applied to the complex delay coefficients determined for one path delay over multiple OFDM symbol periods generates a set of Doppler parameters comprising a plurality of non-equally spaced Doppler frequencies and their corresponding scattering coefficients for that path delay." The patent application was filed on June 4, 2009 (12/478,473). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,379,782&OS=8,379,782&RS=8,379,782 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi.

*** Ericsson Assigned Patent for Resource Selection for Transmission of Multiple ACK/NACK on PUCCH Channel ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 - Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden, has been assigned a patent (8,379,547) developed by four co-inventors for a "resource selection for transmission of multiple ACK/NACK on PUCCH channel." The co-inventors are Yang Hu, Beijing, David Astely, Bromma, Sweden, Jung-Fu Cheng, Cary, N.C., and Sorour Falahati, Stockholm, Sweden.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "In a method of operating a communication network (20) a time division duplex (TDD) frame (F) of information is communicated over a radio interface (32) between a wireless terminal (30) and a base station node (28). The method comprises the wireless terminal (30) receiving plural downlink (DL) subframes of the frame and, in response thereto, configuring a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) channel to comprise up to four acknowledgements by using only two PUCCH channel resources and using PUCCH format 1a or PUCCH format 1b. In an example embodiment a PUCCH channel resource is specified by a sequence utilized for transmission of at least part of the PUCCH channel and a cyclical shift applied to the sequence. The two sequences of the respective two PUCCH resources are orthogonal, and the cyclical shift of the two PUCCH resources can be in a frequency domain, a time domain, or both the frequency domain and the time domain." The patent application was filed on May 15, 2009 (12/467,086). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,379,547&OS=8,379,547&RS=8,379,547 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi.

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