color Kinetics patents

[Van]

So as some of you may or may not know Gordon Pearlman is designing lights for the show currently being produced on our main stage. He's a facinating guy and always has something new and different to discuss, unless he's pulling out some really funny or facinating stories related to the evolution of the modern lighting console. Anyway for thelast couple of days he's brought in some really interesting stories about recent Patents granted to Color Kinetics, If anyone can find the actually news / press releases please feel free to post them in this thread. I'll post them if I can find them. Yesterday they were granted a patent on the process of Sequentially numbering lighting cues. Two days ago they were granted a patent on the use red, blue, and green sources to create "white" light.
Apparently they have also patented the concept of calling any computer controlled dimming system a Light board or console.

All I can say ..... Only in America.

I'm thinkning of patenting the use of Oxygen to sustain bodily functions in carbon based life forms. You guys are going to own me a Ton of money !

[Chris15]

Again proof that the world has gone mad! Tis like Cadbury trademarking the colour purple...

[len]

Those stories sound like tall tales to me.

[zac850]

Hey, people have patented pieces of DNA, DNA that appears naturally inside all humans, so what do you expect.

However, a search of google patents revealed nothing, take that as you will.

[cutlunch]

They appear to be not so tall len. Check out this list of intellectual property patents on their website.

http://www.colorkinetics.com/technol...pinfo/patents/

Check out this article from "Live Design"
http://livedesignonline.com/mag/show...s_competitors/

Apparently they have even gained patents on the use of DMX to control LED lighting systems.

[soundlight]

They have patented the use of certain LED technology positioned in certain places on the space shuttle and on TOILET SEATS.

That's just weird.

Yes, their patents seem to general, and if I remember directly, you (or one of your employees or someone who you bought the idea from) had to invent the item in question - it seems that High End has some previous patents on color-changing fixtures.

[dbn]

There are some surprisingly broad and apparently obvious patents being granted these days. I've dealt with this enough to know that you have to actually examine the claims in each patent to see what it really covers, however. To perform patent searches in the US, you can use this link:

http://www.uspto.gov/

A quick search reveals 53 issued patents assigned to Color Kinetics.

[jwl868]

Most patent language that I’ve ever seen is so specific that it takes paragraphs (pages even), not a sentence, to describe (Just open and read a few that cutlunch posted). (Or you can take a sentence or two out of context of the patent, the patent title, or the patent abstract, and get something that sounds absurd.) On the other hand, judging by a quick look of the all the patents that Color Kinetics appears to have (at their website, which includes a description of one of their projects for the German Patent Office) (not to mention the article that cutlunch posted), I can see why one would make a satirical remark about what Color Kinetics has patented.

Joe

[gafftaper]

Looks like another good reason to buy Selador... besides the fact that it's a superior product... and you better buy quick before Color Kinetics sues them out of business too. I just hate this kind of business practice. Think of all the years of innovation intelligent lighting lost due to all the lawsuits, and here we go again.

Just make a superior product and people will buy it.

[soundlight]

I almost didn't believe the toilet seat when I saw it - but it's one of a dozen or two things that they've patented to have their stuff on it...