Data Center Flotilla

Posted on May 16, 2009 by Rajiv Sarathy

"Green energy" is a hot topic in the energy sector and many companies in that sector are filing patent applications to stake claims to their piece of that green pasture.  Google recently received a patent of its own. 

U.S. Patent No. 7,525,207 issued on April 28, 2009.  It is directed to "[a] system [that] includes a floating platform-mounted computer data center comprising a plurality of computing units, a sea-based electrical generator in electrical connection with the plurality of computing units, and one or more sea-water cooling units for providing cooling to the plurality of computing units," and issued with a couple of quite broad claims:

1. A system, comprising:

  • a computer data center proximate to a body of water comprising a plurality of computing units;
  • a sea-based electrical generator in electrical connection with the plurality of computing units; and
  • one or more sea-water cooling units for providing cooling to the plurality of computing units

16. A method of maintaining a computer data center, comprising:

  • generating electrical power using the wave, tidal, or current motion of water adjacent a data center;
  • providing the generated electrical power to the data center; and
  • circulating the water adjacent the data center through a heat exchanger to produce cooling for the data center equipment.

 

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Small Can Be Big in Patent Law

Posted on May 15, 2009 by Rajiv Sarathy

Most people who are familiar with patents know that the fewer words a claim has, the broader its scope.   New clients who are not familiar with patents sometimes mistakenly think that the more features a patent's claim recites, the "broader" the claim is.  They quickly learn the truth.

Even when they have few words in their claims, many patents have quite long specifications.  For example, a patent a client is thinking of asserting is huge by any stretch of the imagination.  Its specification is scores of pages long.  An advantage to a long specification is that it probably describes multiple "embodiments" of the claimed inventions.  That can become important during licensing negotiations.

On the other hand, I've also seen some very short patents asserted.  For example, CNET reports that a company called Tune Hunter is asserting a patent that is 6 1/2 pages long (including 3 figures, about 3/4 page for 2 claims, the cover bibliographic page, and a short description) against some huge companies:  Samsung, Apple, Motorola, Amazon, Verizon Wireless, LG Electronics, AT&T Mobility, and others.  The patented technology "provides the listener with convenient means to record a segment of the music in which he/she is interested. The recorded music segment is played back into an apparatus which can identify the song based on the play back and provide the user with information on the identified song such as title, singer or artist, composer, producer, etc., and provide related purchasing information. "  (U.S. Patent No. 6,941,275, Abstract.)  Apparently Tune Hunter's iPhone application is quite popular. 

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