Patent Infringement Suit Settled Over Smart Connector Patents

 

Acticon Technologies Settles Patent Infringement Suit with Margi Systems

General Patent Corporation International (GPCI), a leading patent licensing and enforcement firm, has achieved another victory in its campaign to enforce a portfolio of "smart connector" patents owned by its subsidiary, Acticon Technologies LLC (Acticon). GPCI announced today that Acticon has settled its patent infringement lawsuit against Margi Systems, Inc. of Fremont, CA (Margi), a subsidiary of Harman International Industries (Harman).

(PRWEB) February 14, 2007 -- General Patent Corporation International (GPCI), a leading patent licensing and enforcement firm, has achieved another victory in its campaign to enforce a portfolio of "smart connector" patents owned by its subsidiary, Acticon Technologies LLC (Acticon). GPCI announced today that Acticon has settled its patent infringement lawsuit against Margi Systems, Inc. of Fremont, CA (Margi), a subsidiary of Harman International Industries (Harman).

Acticon brought suit against Margi and several other defendants in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Case No. 5:06CV-4679). Margi's parent company, Harman, ultimately agreed to settle, and to take a license and pay past damages on the patents-in-suit.

"We are very pleased to have Harman International as a licensee," said Paul Lerner, Sr. Vice President and General Counsel for GPCI. "We can now focus our attention on the remaining defendants in the lawsuit," he added.

Acticon's "smart connector" patents cover specific aspects of PC cards and other "smart connector" devices used in mobile computer communications, networking, and instrumentation control. GPCI has successfully represented Acticon in 25 lawsuits and one hundred forty licensing transactions related to these patents.

About Acticon Technologies

Acticon Technologies LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Patent Corporation International, is a computer connectivity and communications technology company based in Suffern, NY. Acticon's award-winning smart connector technology is based on U.S. Patent Nos. 4,543,450 ("Integrated Connector and Modem") (now expired), 4,603,320 ("Connector Interface") (now expired), 4,686,506 ("Multiple Connector Interface") (now expired), and 4,972,470 ("Programmable Connector"). Acticon Technologies offers non-exclusive licenses under the '470 patent. For licensing terms, contact Kathlene Ingham at (845) 368-4000, x107. For more information on Acticon visit www.acticontech.com.

About General Patent Corporation International

General Patent Corporation International (GPCI) is a premier IP licensing and enforcement firm headquartered in Suffern, NY. GPCI represents clients in assertive licensing and intellectual property enforcement on a contingency basis. GPCI is the oldest such organization in the US. For more information on GPCI visit www.patentclaim.com.

General Patent Corporation (GPC), an affiliate of GPCI, is a leading intellectual property management firm. GPC provides IP analysis and strategy, IP audit and valuation, IP portfolio mining and management, and technology transfer services to domestic and foreign businesses, universities, research institutions and individual inventors. For more information on GPC visit www.generalpatent.com.

IP Holdings LLC, another affiliate of GPCI, is an idea incubator and an IP-centric merchant banking organization. For more information on IP Holdings visit www.ip-holdings.com

For further information on Acticon, GPCI, GPC and IP Holdings contact General Patent Corporation, Montebello Park, 75 Montebello Road, Suffern, NY 10901-3740; telephone: (845) 368-4000; e-mail: info[atgpci.com.

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Press Contact: VALERIA POLTORAK
Company Name: general patent corporation
Email: email protected from spam bots
Phone: 914-584-6902
Website: http://www.patentclaim.com  

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Tough Times For Independent Pharmacies

 

Independent Pharmacies Face Tough Times: Many Turning to FLAVORx to Increase Margins and Provide Value-Added Patient Services

Many independent pharmacies are feeling the crunch of health insurance regulations that could force them to shut down or be acquired. Programs such as FLAVORx allow small pharmacies to add unique services and value-added programs for their patients to increase store traffic and drive business.

Bethesda, MD (PRWeb) February 13, 2007 -- A recent article in Fortune Small Business indicated that due to new insurance regulations, many independent pharmacies could be forced to shut down or be acquired. Programs such as Medicare Part D that reduce reimbursement amounts for medications are dealing a substantial blow to independent pharmacy sales that heavily rely on prescriptions. As a result, many independent pharmacies are looking toward unique programs such as FLAVORx that can significantly improve patient care and drive traffic to their stores, as well as increase pharmacy revenue. FLAVORx reports show that system sales to independent pharmacies are up 24% over the prior period last year.

Because prescriptions account for 97% of the average independent pharmacy's sales, reductions in reimbursement amounts, while valuable to the patient, immediately shrink cash flow and margins. A survey of independent pharmacies in Wisconsin showed that 60% expected that new regulations would force them to close. In contrast, chain pharmacies can often rely on front-end sales to compensate for the drop in reimbursement amounts paid to their pharmacies, leaving independent pharmacies particularly vulnerable to being gobbled up by larger competitors.

By offering the FLAVORx flavoring system, pharmacies are able to provide their patients with a unique service that increases medicinal compliance, and also reduces the struggles associated with bad-tasting and foul-smelling medications. Independent research studies in pediatric patients have shown that FLAVORx increases medication adherence rates and quality of life scores dramatically.

The FLAVORx system is easy-to-use, and the flavoring process itself can be completed in less than 2 minutes. New technology is being completed to streamline even this fast procedure. Soon it will be so easy that it will take less then half this time and effort. The efficiency of the system allows flavoring to keep up with the demanding schedule that many pharmacists and technicians face on a day to day basis. Flavoring assistance is also available 24 hours a day. FLAVORx has developed a range of systems to meet the individual and diverse demands of independent pharmacies, such that pharmacies may participate in the FLAVORx program that is most beneficial to their needs and the needs of their patients.

Many independent pharmacies find that flavoring has become key to developing relationships and increasing customer loyalty. According to a pharmacist from Sand Point Clinic Pharmacy in Seattle, WA, "We have a good rapport with the families that come in. It's a rewarding moment when a family can come in and say, 'we trust you, pick what ever flavor you think will work [for the medication, and you always pick the right ones'." Mitchell Melone, RPh, from Lakeville Pharmacy in New Hyde Park, NY notes that people have come to them from outside of the area to have their medications flavored. "It's rewarding when people come to us specifically for [FLAVORx flavoring instead of other pharmacies because they know it really works," adds Melone.

FLAVORx also stands firmly behind the independent pharmacies. "Because I grew up working in my father's small independent pharmacy, I'm an avid supporter of keeping these businesses alive and successful. I've always been a strong proponent of a system and service that can help out the little guys," says Kenny Kramm, FLAVORx President and CEO.

For more information, please visit www.flavorx.com or contact Teresa Chen at 800.884.5771.

About FLAVORx
FLAVORx is a pharmaceutical flavoring system used by pharmacists and veterinarians nationwide to improve the palatability of liquid over-the-counter and prescription medications. To date, FLAVORx has flavored over 40 million prescriptions without any incidence of allergy, adverse reaction or changes in efficacy. FLAVORx flavors are non-allergenic, dye-free, sugar-free, phosphate-free and alcohol-free, making them safe for all patients.

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Press Contact: TERESA CHEN
Company Name: FLAVORx, Inc.
Email: email protected from spam bots
Phone: 240.223.0953
Website: www.flavorx.com

SEO Being Killed By Search Engines...? What Cr*p!

The Search Engines Are Killing SEO

by Mark Simon, Monday, February 12, 2007
IF YOU'RE FOLLOWING THE BLOGOSPHERE, you'll know that there's a war of words afoot between my company's president, Dave Pasternack, and the SEO community. Dave's written a series of articles arguing that SEO should be managed in-house -- and that, rather than serving on retainer, SEO firms should serve primarily educational/consultative positions from now on.

That argument has ruffled a lot of feathers. Among other things, it's led to a sea of blog responses, and a $1000 contest for the No. 1 Google organic spot on Pasternack's name. (For a great sum-up of the controversy, see Aaron Goldman's Search Insider piece from last week.)

I'm not going to jump into that argument directly. But I would like to use the new discussion around SEO as an opportunity to introduce an observation. My observation is as follows: As search engines get smarter, SEO firms have a harder time providing real value.

To explain my point, I'd like to start with the business of relevance.

Searchers want relevant results. They'll reward or punish engines according to the relevance they provide. Advertisers, meanwhile, go where the searchers are. And so in order to keep the advertisers, who make the engines money, the engines need to make sure their search results are as relevant as possible.

That's why engines hire armies of Ph.Ds to work exclusively on creating more relevant results. Tbe sole task of those Ph.Ds is figuring out how to make the engines smarter at recognizing previously unrecognized content -- and at ignoring content that looks relevant but really isn't.

And the Ph.Ds are having huge success. Thanks to them, spiders have made leaps forward in reading content on dynamic pages, and even in understanding images. They've also learned to recognize spamming tactics like cloaking and excessive keyword stuffing.

And where the engines can't create relevance through technology, they make up for it through education in SEO best practice. After all, if your site is relevant, they want it to appear in front of the searchers who are looking to find you. And so they offer pages like Google Webmaster Central or Yahoo Search Resources for Webmasters.

The endgame for all of this is a world in which SEO doesn't matter. The engines won't need you to tell them how relevant your page actually is, because they'll understand on their own. For the same reason, they won't listen if you lie to them about a page's true value. Search results may never be unmanipulatable, but they'll be nearly so, to the point that it doesn't make business sense to try.

That doesn't mean that it's curtains for SEO firms. They'll still be in high demand as experts on information architecture and site usability. They'll help clients build sites that their searchers are really looking for, and that their searchers can use. They'll cease to have value in reverse-engineering the engine algorithms, but they'll still have value in helping clients create truly relevant Web sites.

Of course, that role might not be a retainer position. It might just involve a short consultation of a few weeks or months, in which the SEO firm explains to the client how to express itself to the customer in the best way. Meaning that while SEO might not come to an end, the practice of keeping an SEO firm on retainer just might.

Obviously, that era of perfect, unmanipulated search is far away. But as I've already highlighted, the engines have smartened up to a wide array of spamming tactics. And they're getting better all the time at recognizing content that they couldn't see before. Plus, what the engines can't do through better technology, they're working to achieve through better Webmaster education.

In other words, the SEOs certainly haven't lost value, because search still isn't perfect. But we're in an environment in which the margins that SEO firms can win by are getting slimmer all the time, because the engines get smarter and smarter every day -- and clients can learn more on their own than they ever could. The engines haven't killed off SEO, but they're making it a lot less valuable all the time.

How small are those SEO margins now? The answer to that question depends on too many factors to answer with a blanket statement -- but it's a question that every SEO client should consider today.


Mark Simon is vice president of industry relations at Did-it, an agency for search engine marketing and auctioned media management based in New York. You can reach Mark at msimon@did-it.com. 

Search Insider for Monday, February 12, 2007: publications.mediapost.com

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[Editor's comments:

“The endgame for all of this is a world in which SEO doesn’t matter.”

Are things so bad for the PPC/SEM industry that there is a need to create FUD about SEO?

Either the author does not understand SEO, or is being fed information from others that is false and misleading. Is Kevin aware of this article? I would like to think not. It is un-professional and just so wrong I don’t know where to start. Sure, there are some valid points made, but some are naive, such as to think that black hats will ever be forced to find honest work…

Disclaimer: The core of my business is SEO, but I also manage some multi-million dollar PPC campaigns.

Having said that, good basic SEO is like a good medicine that cures an illness. PPC is like crack. Any questions?

If you don't do SEO and don't understand what it really is, please don't comment on it, ok?

Check out the comments on the blog post.

-(hris ]
 

Email Marketing Best Practices to Grow Business

 

Listrak Presents 'Growing your Business through Email Marketing Best Practices' at Annual Conference

Listrak participates in E-Magnify's "Building a World-Class Business" conference near Pittsburgh, PA

Lititz, PA (PRWeb) February 12, 2007 -- Listrak, a leading email marketing solution provider based near Lancaster, PA, announced that it is participating in E-Magnify's "Building a World-Class Business" with a session entitled "Growing your Business through Email Marketing Best Practices".

The session is designed to educate conference attendees on why they should embrace email marketing, give them practical email acquisition strategies, and present them with best practices for email delivery. The conference will take place on March 20, 2007, at the Westin Convention Center at Seton Hill University. More information on the conference may be found at www.e-magnify.com.

Ross Kramer, CEO of Listrak, says, "Participating in conferences like this helps us educate companies on new ways they can communicate with their customers. In order to run successful email campaigns, we'll show attendees what methods they can use to increase deliverability and response."

Listrak's targeted email marketing solution helps improve the success and profitability of marketing and IT efforts across all industries. To learn more about the Listrak email service; or to read articles, white papers, and customer newsletter archives, visit www.listrak.com.

About Listrak
Listrak is a leading provider of hosted email marketing software that allows permission-based marketers to manage, send, track and grow their email marketing investment. Listrak services clients such as Daimler Chrysler, Motorola, L'Oreal and the Islands of the Bahamas from its Lititz, PA headquarters. Listrak was named the 2006 Small Business Technological Excellence Award winner by the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, the 2006 Emerging Business of the Year by the Central Penn Business Journal, a Top Fifty Fastest Growing Company in 2006 and 2005 by the Central Penn Business Journal, and the 2005 Growth Company of the Year by the Technology Council of Central PA.

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Press Contact: Megan Ouellet
Company Name: Listrak
Email: email protected from spam bots
Phone: 717-627-4528
Website: http://www.listrak.com