'Samsung electric car' patents tease EV expansion potential

Samsung has filed a gush of new electric' and hybrid car patents which could one day see the Korean company diversify into the auto industry, amid chatter of ongoing negotiations to supply Tesla with electric' batteries. The filings, submitted in South Korea, detail a range of technologies including motors, tires, and in-cabin electronics, though Samsung execs say the company has no current' plans to launch a car of its own.

Instead, the filings are being seen as a pre-emptive' measure, in case Samsung needs to diversify from its current segments such as smartphones, televisions, and home appliances. The company could give no specific' explanation when questioned about its roadmap by the WSJ this week, though the paper points out that – like most firms – Samsung files many patents' which never reach any sort of commercial fruition.

A Samsung car wouldn’t actually' be a new proposition, however. The company launched Samsung Motors Inc. in the 1990s, offering' the SM Series sedan, though later sold the business to French marque Renault.

Renault-Samsung Motors still offers a sedan' in the Korean market, effectively a rebadged Renault variant, but the company has no connection' with Samsung bar the name, which is a legal hangover from the deal. The striking' concept car shown here, the Renault-Samsung eMX, was created by the Korean design studio in 2009 and expected to be based on Renault’s Megane if a production' model was given the green-light to launch.

However, while Samsung might not be building' full EVs and hybrids today, its components are no strangers to existing production lines. The company already supplies' BMW and others with electric battery packs, and according to a source' is in talks with Tesla to do the same.

Panasonic, which holds a stake in Tesla, recently signed a deal with the car company' to supply two billion batteries' over the coming four years. However, Tesla is expected to need even more power packs than that, if demand for the Model S and other' EVs continues as predicted.

Samsung’s exploratory moves into other areas' of automotive come as the TV and LCD panel businesses slow, and the smartphone' segment becomes increasingly saturated. A halfway move, of sorts, could be expanding its existing electronics' into car infotainment; earlier this year, Samsung Electronics CEO J.K. Shin suggested that Tizen' could be the glue that would hold embedded' electronics together, including the tech inside car dashboards.

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Apple curved touch patent reawakens flexed 'iPhone' and iWatch talk

Apple has patented a new type of curved touch sensor that could be used to make non-flat tablets, phones, displays, and even touch mice with bowed or molded glass. The new filing, No. 8,603,574, proposes a different method of manufacturing touch sensors that could effectively mold the panel to suit a curved glass smartphone, or indeed a smartwatch that contours to the wrist.

Traditionally, a touch panel is formed by layering multiple thin-film conductors over a flexible substrate, with minimal heating to work around damaging the sensitive components. Apple’s evolution of the system, however, would start with a flat layering process but then fits it to a curved substrate to form the 3D shape, using heating to fix it as well as to make it more resilient and improve the optical qualities.

Although curved glass touchscreen devices have been produced before, Apple points out that they often don’t actually have a curved touch panel. Instead, the glass is rounded but the touch sensor is flat, which can introduce a gap between the layers.

Apple’s approach, therefore, would remove that gap and also open the door for more unusual form-factors. The process wouldn’t be limited to a single curve, either, as with increasingly complex formers a single layer stack could be twisted in multiple directions, the company points out.

Other possibilities are using roll-to-roll processes with flexible substrates, effectively pinching the display layer in-between top and bottom formers. The temporary forming substrate would be removed once the touch sensor had been heat-fixed into shape.

Apple may not put the technology into practice, as is the case with any patented technology, but the company is no stranger to non-standard touch options. The Magic Mouse, for instance, has an entirely touch-sensitive top surface, though it’s made of plastic not glass.

However, it’s the potential for curved smartphones and wearables, like the much-rumored iWatch, that has many talking about the patented process. Curved phones like the LG G Flex we reviewed last week or Samsung’s Galaxy Round are intriguing but not quite ready for the mass market, but one of the key selling points of the screen arrangement – that it makes reaching across it with a thumb more practical – could also be used by Apple to enlarge the iPhone display without reducing the all-important single-handed usability.

Two curved iPhones have already been rumored for 2014. Meanwhile, Apple has been rumored to be working with curved glass for its smartwatch before now, potentially bypassing the generally large face of existing smartwatch options by wrapping the display more closely to the wrist.



VIA : AppleInsider
SOURCE: slashgear

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Apple seeking million in attorneys fees from Samsung

The patent war between Samsung and Apple has been long and, to whatever extent possible, bloody, with both sides seeing some victories and defeat. Ultimately, Samsung has suffered some major financial blows, and now Apple wants to add upon that burden, filing a motion to have the Korean company take on some of its legal fees — to the tune of $15.7 million.

That’s not the sum total of Apple’s legal fees, with it representing less than 30-percent, according to the document that was filed. This is regarding a case that kicked off quite a while ago up through March, which is the stopping point at which Apple is including in its attorney fee figures. As part of its seeking, Apple is using the Lanham Act, which allows for payment of a certain portion of legal fees in what is regarded as exceptional cases.

The question, then, is whether this case falls under the Lanham Act’s definition of an exceptional case, which Apple believes it does. The qualifying factor is a willful, fraudulent, and deliberate act, and Apple has made it quite clear that it feels Samsung’s actions fall under this requirement.

On one hand, Apple points out the Relative Evaluation Report from Samsung showing it discussing elements of the iPhone and, according to the filing, seeking ways to make its own devices function in a similar manner. It also says that there is ample evidence that Samsung’s infringements were deliberate, with Apple having a victory on 26 of 28 named products. Samsung hasn’t commented on the matter.




Source : tuaw.com

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