Hearing Device Patent Activity for May and June 2013

Patent reform just got sexy in the US Congress as politicians tout “innovation, not litigation, [a]s a bipartisan goal.” Hearing Economics did some foreshadowing of this trend based on recent patent fights in our little industry that didn’t go so well. New hearing device patent approvals for the last two months are shown in the table below. Click on Mar-April 2013, Jan-Feb 2013 and Nov-Dec 2012 for previous lists.

Three Big Issues

There is a huge backlog of applications. The pipeline has been reduced to around 600,000, but the process remains painfully slow. Hearing aid innovations are not exceptions. As one reader of this column commented:

I find it amazing that many of these patents were filed over 4 years ago… Just goes to show how slow the process is, even for the Big Guns like Widex and Starkey.
The patent office needs more funding to handle the onslaught of applications and ensure that they receive thorough scrutiny prior to approval.
Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs), aka Patent Trolls, are turning the whole process upside down with an avalanche of expensive, frivolous lawsuits. As a result, the Trolls are coming under investigation by the FTC. As their name suggests, PAEs constantly troll the vast patent world for the dual purposes of scarfing up technology patents and then suing manufacturers/designers of devices/software for patent infringement. In the words of Edith Ramirez, FTC chairwoman:

A central empirical question, which we will continue to examine, is whether P.A.E.’s encourage invention or instead hamper innovation and competition.

Remedies

Better, faster patent analysis and approval are good remedies, although the cost of funding such a massive enterprise may price individuals out of the market.

The trolls are a different, much bigger form of Supply Side Shock, shifting manufacturers’ Supply curve to the left, meaning Willing to Sell decreases for a given price. This is not an economically desirable effect — prices tend to rise or consumption goes down. In economic parlance, trolls create market inefficiencies. Down with trolls!

Industries, countries and global regions have their own remedies for fighting trolls in order to protect resources and ensure stability, especially of prices. The main remedy is to circle the wagons and form a membership organization to share resources, not unlike OPEC’s response to giant multinational companies in the 1960s. Note that this remedy is another form of market inefficiency because Price and Quantity Supplied are controlled by suppliers of one type or another. No one said troll-fighters were pretty, or even much different looking than trolls.

The hearing aid industry has a remedy organization, known as Hearing Instrument Manufacturers Patent Partnership K/S HIMPP, which filed its first patent application in 1984 and now owns 66 patents in eight patent classes. It keeps a low profile. More on HIMPP in a later post.

The List

The list is populated by the Usual Suspects of global corporate competitors. But Daniel Schumaier, President of Ear Technology, once again makes the list as the sole individual seeking and obtaining a hearing device patent on every list we’ve compiled for 2013. Go Dan, the Man against the Machine!

Description	Patent Number	Assignee	Filed	Issued
Methods and Systems for Reducing an Effect of Ambient Noise within an Auditory Prosthesis System	8422706	Advanced Bionics, LLC (Valencia, CA)	9/10/2010	4/16/2013
Method and Apparatus for Modular Hearing Aid	8428282	Starkey Laboratories, Inc. (Eden Prairie, MN)	9/29/2008	4/23/2013
Hearing instrument using receivers with different performance characteristics	8433072	Oticon A/S (Smorum, Denmark) and Bernafon AG (Berne, Switzerland)	11/07/2008	4/30/2013
Bone Conduction Devices Generating Tangentially-Directed Mechanical Force Using a Linearly Moving Mass	8433081	Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU)	3/05/2009	4/30/2013
Calibrated hearing aid tuning appliance	8437486	Dan Wiggins (Edmonds, Wash.) and Donald L Bowie (Burien, Wash.)	4/14/2010	5/07/2013
Dual Microphone EAS System That Prevents Feedback	8437859	Advanced Bionics, LLC (Valencia, CA)	9/03/2009	5/07/2013
System and Method for Three Dimensional Reconstruction of an Anatomical Impression	8437009	Siemens Medical Instruments Pte. Ltd. (Singapore, SG)	6/22/2010	5/07/2013
Hearing Aid	8442253	Brainstorm Audio LLC (Dover, Del.)	1/20/2012	5/14/2013
Hearing aid system comprising a matched filter and a measurement method	8442247	Bernafon AG (Berne, Switzerland)	12/10/2008	5/14/2013
Electromagnet battery handler	8438723	William A Reinman (Modesto, Calif.) and Edward S. Heyman (Modesto, Calif.)	4/01/2011	5/14/2013
Systems and methods for managing wireless communication links for hearing assistance devices	8442248	Starkey Laboratories Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.)	9/02/2009	5/14/2013
Hearing aid device and hearing aid method	8442246	Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, Japan)	4/26/2010	5/14/2013
Hearing device with automatic algorithm switching	8442245	Siemens Medical Instruments Pte. Ltd. (Singapore)	12/22/2009	5/14/2013
Hearing aid and method for controlling signal processing in a hearing aid	8442250	Widex A/S (Lynge, Denmark)	9/26/2008	5/14/2013
Behind-the-ear hearing aid with interchangeable ear hook and ear tube	8442252	Audiotoniq Inc. (Austin, Texas)	9/30/2010	5/14/2013
Hearing Aid	8442253	Brainstorm Audio LLC (Dover, Del.)	1/20/2012	5/14/2013
Electromagnet battery handler	8438723	William A Reinman (Modesto, Calif.) and Edward S. Heyman (Modesto, Calif.)	4/01/2011	5/14/2013
Electroneural Interface for a Medical Implant	8447409	Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU)	10/15/2009	5/21/2013
Entrainment Avoidance with a Gradient Adaptive Lattice Filter	8452034	Starkey Laboratories, Inc. (Eden Prairie, MN)	10/23/2007	5/28/2013
Real ear measurement system using thin tube	8452021	Starkey Laboratories, Inc. (Eden Prairie, MN)	4/14/2008	5/28/2013
Measurement of Transmitter/Receiver Separation	8452412	Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU)	9/04/2003	5/28/2013
Electrode Assembly for a Stimulating Medical Device	8452411	Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU)	6/10/2011	5/28/2013
Lead Insertion Tools	8452421	Advanced Bionics, LLC (Valencia, CA)	7/8/2010	5/28/2013
Environment adaptive type hearing aid	8457335	Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, Japan)	6/25/2008	6/04/2013
Open ear canal hearing aid with adjustable non-occluding securing mechanism	8457337	Aria Innovations Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.)	7/21/2010	6/04/2013
Contamination Resistant Ports for Hearing Devices	8457336	InSound Medical, Inc. (Newark, CA)	6/18/2010	6/04/2013
Anchoring Element	8454668	Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU)	5/21/2008	6/04/2013
Hearing aid and method of controlling volume of hearing aid	8462957	Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, Japan)	2/17/2010	6/11/2013
Shared coil for inductive charging and hearing-aid-compliance requirements in mobile phones	8462968	Research in Motion Ltd. (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada	6/18/2010	6/11/2013
Ear Fitting	8462973	L. Gore & Associates Inc. (Newark, Del.)	5/17/2010	6/11/2013
Systems and methods for own voice recognition with adaptations for noise robustness	8462969	Siemens Audiologische Technik GmbH (Erlangen, Germany)	4/19/2011	6/11/2013
Apparatus and method for connecting a hearing aid to hearing aid test equipment	8467537	Audiology Innovations Pty Ltd (Australia)	5/24/2007	6/18/2013
Canal hearing device with disposable battery module	8467556	Ihear Medical Inc. (Oakland, Calif.)	9/09/2010	6/18/2013
Hearing aid system comprising a receiver in the ear and a system for identification of the type of receiver	8467553	Bernafon AG (Berne, Switzerland)	6/25/2010	6/18/2013
Method, hearing device and configuration for calibrating an acoustic tuning system	846755	Siemens Medical Instruments PTE, Ltd.	11/20/2010	6/18/2013
Method for monitoring a hearing device and hearing device with self-monitoring function	8467555	Phonak AG	4/18/2011	6/18/2013
Tinnitus rehabilitation device and method	8465411	Neuromonics Pty Ltd	11/5/2010	6/18/2013
Audio processing	8472655	Koninkluke Philips Electronics N.V.	6/17/2009	6/25/2013
Observer-based cancellation system for implantable hearing instruments	8472654	Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU)	10/30/2007	6/25/2013
Preprogrammed hearing assistance device with audiometric testing capability	8472634	Daniel R Schumaier (Elizabethton, Tenn)	3/03/2010	6/25/2013