The World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) reported recently that Northeast Asia is now a hotbed of patent filing, with a 4.7% annual growth rate within particularly South Korea and China. The worldwide average growth rate was 3.6%.
If you want to look at it another way, the top five busiest patent offices in the world are, in descending order, the Japan Patent Office, United States Trademark and Patent Office, China Patent and Trademark Office, Korean Intellectual Property Office, and European Patent Office. These offices altogether count for 77% of all patents filed according to the latest statistics.
But what exactly is going on in the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) What new innovations are being submitted today, that could sweep the world tomorrow Let's take a closer look at a few of the more interesting IT-related patents that have been submitted to KIPO recently. Keep in mind that while these patent applications have been submitted, their status is as yet unknown.
#1020070038338
SYSTEM AND A METHOD FOR PROVIDING A PAYMENT SERVICE BASED ON AN INDIVIDUAL APPROVAL BY USING A MOBILE TERMINAL
A system and a method for providing a payment service based on an individual approval are provided to enable the customer to perform payment in a member shop without exposing information by receiving a customer ID from the customer, receiving the payment approval from a mobile terminal of the customer corresponding to the received ID information, and requesting the payment approval to a financial company.
CONSTITUTION: A member shop terminal transmits the customer ID of an approver for approving the payment of a goods/service price and individual payment approval request information, and receives a result. An individual payment approval server registers the customer by receiving the customer ID and a mobile phone number of the customer, and receives the approval request information from the member shop terminal. The individual payment approval server approves the payment by transmitting the payment approval information to the mobile terminal corresponding to the customer ID and receiving the approval from the mobile terminal, and transmits approval completion information to the member shop terminal.
This confusing bit of legalese is apparently talking about using a mobile device as a credit card. Mobile payment methods are not new to Korea, but this method seems to link the identity of the customer to the cell phone number more strongly. It also seems to send a confirmation to the mobile device, allowing the user to have the double confirmation of first using the mobile device to begin the process and the confirming the process with more user interaction. It will be interesting to see if double confirmation becomes popular in new mobile handset payment methods in the future.
#1020070035133
APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING A PORTABLE DEVICE AND A METHOD THEREOF, CONCERNED WITH AUTOMATICALLY CONTROLLING THE AVAILABILITY OF THE PORTABLE DEVICE BASED ON USER AUTHENTICATION
An apparatus for controlling a portable device and a method thereof are provided to strengthen personal information protection or security capability by restricting usage of the portable device if the portable device is located at a set distance away from a user via a portable unit for protection which is operated in a pair with the portable device.
CONSTITUTION: An apparatus for controlling a portable device comprises a portable unit for protection and the portable device. The portable unit for protection transmits set unique information based on RF to the portable device. The portable device receives the unique information from the portable unit for protection and controls usage of a corresponding device according to the received unique information. The portable device includes a unique information receipt and detection member and a controller. The unique information receipt and detection member receives and detects the unique information from the portable unit for protection. The controller checks whether the portable device is separated from the portable unit for protection farther than a set distance and controls usage of the corresponding device according to equality of the detected unique information.
This seems like a reasonable and interesting take on mobile phone theft prevention. The mobile device would not work if separated too far away from another portable device, presumably some sort of wrist strap or button. As cellular phones become more essential to every day life, their security becomes more important. This idea may very well hit the big time.
#1020070036435
METHOD FOR CONTROLLING IMAGE DATA IN A VIDEO CALL MODE OF A PORTABLE TERMINAL, ESPECIALLY FOR DISPLAYING THE IMAGE DATA OR TRANSMITTING THE IMAGE DATA TO THE OTHER SIDE TERMINAL IN A VIDEO MUTE MODE OF THE VIDEO CALL MODE, AND DISPLAYING SET DATA IF NOT HAVING RECEIVED VIDEO DATA FOR A SET TIME
A method for controlling image data in a video call mode of a portable terminal is provided to display image data set by a user or transmit the set image data to a terminal of the other side when the portable terminal has not received video data for a set time and is switched to a video mute mode.
CONSTITUTION: A method for controlling image data in a video call mode of a portable terminal comprises the following several steps. If a video mute item is selected in a video call mode, the portable terminal is switched to a video mute mode. The portable terminal checks the kind of video mute image data in the video mute mode. If the kind of the video mute image data is video mute noticing image data, the portable terminal displays image data or transmits image data to the terminal of the other side wherein the image data notices a switch to the video mute mode. If the kind of the video mute image data is user image data, the terminal displays the user image data or transmits the user image data to the terminal of the other side.
This sounds like two related but separate ideas for video calling. The first would be something like a privacy screen, to transmit video data disconnected from the live videophone stream so that if a user was not presentable, they could avoid being seen. The second idea seems to be related to a screensaver. Could trendy and cool video icons be the next custom ringtone next year It's definitely a possibility.
#1020077007594
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING REPORTS FOR SMS MESSAGES IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
Techniques for conveying reports for SMS messages in wireless communication networks that utilize CDMA air interface (e.g., GSM1x and CDMA networks). Two new messages, SMS Deliver Report Message and SMS Submit Report Message, are defined for CDMA SMS. These report messages may be used to more fully convey the information in the SMS-Deliver-Report TPDU and SMS-Submit- Report TPDU defined in GSM SMS. A new Report_Req field is also provided in the Reply Option subparameter of the SMS Deliver Message and SMS Submit Message defined in CDMA SMS. This new field may be used to request a report for an SMS message to be sent by the messages recipient.
Each report message may include (1) a first value indicative of whether the SMS message was received correctly or in error, (2) a second value indicative of a type of error, if any, encountered for the SMS message, and (3) user data.
CDMA SMS messages borrow a page out of the email handbook here, in the concept of read receipts. Sending and receiving confirmation for text messages sounds like the perfect reassurance that quarreling lovers need during those highly emotionally charged times. Also, if SMS messages become more popular as official communications, it sounds just like what the boss needs to confirm that late work hours have been received by employees.
#1020070034045
EAVESDROPPING AND PEEPING DETECTION ANTENNA MODULE, INCLUDING LOOP ANTENNA AND CHIP ANTENNA ON PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD
An eavesdropping and peeping detection antenna module is provided to mount the antenna inside a portable phone by packaging the antenna optimized to the sensing frequency band as a chip type in the minimum space.
CONSTITUTION: An eavesdropping and peeping detection antenna module includes a loop antenna, and a chip antenna. The loop antenna is formed on a Printed Circuit Board (PCB). The chip antenna is formed on the PCB of the loop antenna. The loop antenna is formed by shaping a wire of an antenna element in a looptype. The loop antenna has a high low frequency bandwidth characteristic.
The chip antenna has a high radio frequency bandwidth characteristic. A circuit board that is also a security compromising low-power antenna.
As mobile phones become an even more essential part of our every day lives, there will be people who really, really want to get at their information. And with a patent like this, who are we to stop them
