Another bunch of patents compiled, with a few notes of varying importance.
- Important: “Hearing aid” and “hearing device” are quickly becoming inadequate to capture innovations and new players in the ear-level communication field. Patent applications are proliferating from a variety of sources for diverse technologies and methodologies (e.g., Patent Application 20130272555). It’s tempting to include them in the Table, but it’s too long already.
- Time will tell if this is important: Panasonic garnered a bunch of patents and they did it in record time on most. I don’t know why Panasonic gets their applications through faster than others. I also don’t know whether Panasonic cares much, since they sold their Healthcare business unit for $1.67B on October 3rd to giant US private equity company Kolberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR). The deal (set to finalize next March) includes patents and other intellectual property. KKR is interested in the “expanding global healthcare market” which probably means focusing on Panasonic’s big sellers (e.g., blood glucose monitors for diabetes). They may exit the hearing aid market but one hearing aid market report speculates that if KKR picks up the hearing aid portion, “only time will tell whether they plan to continue utilizing traditional distribution channels or redirect their efforts toward a direct-to-consumer strategy.”
- Important to me: I vote for Starkey patent #8542841 . Anything that reduces time, expense, cumbersomeness and calibration contortions of Real Ear in the clinic gets my vote. Measuring SPL at the patient’s tympanic membrane through their own hearing aid as part of the fitting has been a long time coming.
- Is this important? US Patent #8545383 is for a “Light Activated Hearing Aid.” Must be more to that than meets the eye, so to speak, but the title disconcerts.
Increasingly, the titles of hearing aid patents include the word “Method” as inventions move from things-you-can-stick-in-your-ear to ideas about such things. Programming and software are the stuff of patents now, which takes me briefly back to that recurring theme of patent trolls and patent infringement.
Check out this fascinating NPR podcast about patent attacks, featuring a cameo by Steven Colbert as well as interesting terms such as “shake-down,” “protection,” “get money” and companies with names like “Bullet Proof Technologies of Texas.” Sounds like an episode of The Sopranos, set out west and starring Ira Glass. As this hilarious quote from the show says, the podcast itself was a patent infringement:
Personal Audio … claims it holds a patent used by all podcasters. Podcasters, they say, owe them money. Only catch: their company never made a digital podcast or invented a way to download it into a listening device.
Description |
Patent Number |
Assignee |
Filed |
Issued |
Input selection for Auditory Devices | 8515108 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
6/16/2008 |
8/20/2013 |
Systems, Methods, and Articles of Manufacture for Characterizing Hearing Prosthesis Channel Interaction | 8521296 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
7/18/2011 |
8/27/2013 |
Device for Variable-Length Fixing of the Actuator End Piece of an Active Hearing Implant in the Middle Ear | 8518112 | Heinz Kurz GmbH Hedizintechnik (Dusslingen DE) |
9/21/2011 |
8/27/2013 |
Artifact Cancellation in Hybrid audio Prostheses | 8521297 | Med-EL Elektromedizinische Geraete GmbH (innsbruck, AT) |
12/11/2009 |
8/27/2013 |
Behind-the-Ear Hearing Aid Whose Microphone Is Set in an Entrance of Ear Canal | 8526653 | Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, Japan) |
6/22/2011 |
9/03/2013 |
Hearing Aid | 8526624 | Otion A/S (Smorum, Denmark) |
3/20/2012 |
9/03/2013 |
Methods and Systems of Automatically Detecting an Impeance of One or More Electrodes in a Cochlear Implant System | 8527058 | Advance Bionics, LLC (Valencia, CA) |
8/10/2012 |
9/03/2013 |
Receiver Module for Inflating a Membrane in an Ear Device | 8526651 | Sonion Nederland BV (Hoofddorp, NL) |
1/24/2011 |
9/03/2013 |
Occlusion Effect Mitigation and Sound Isolation Device for Orifice Inserted Systems | 8522916 | Personics Holdings Inc. (Boca Raton, FL) |
10/17/2012 |
9/03/2013 |
Hearing Aid Device | 8532318 | Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, Japan) |
10/05/2010 |
9/10/2013 |
Method and system for Fitting a Hearing Aid | 8532320 | Widex A/S (Lynge, Denmark) |
4/15/2008 |
9/10/2013 |
Filter Bank Configuration for a Hearing Device | 8532319 | Siemens Medical Instruments Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) |
7/09/2010 |
9/10/2013 |
Computer-Assisted Diagnostic Hearing Test | 8529464 | Tympany, LLC (The Woodlands, TX) |
6/14/2010 |
9/10/2013 |
Filter Bank Configuration for a Hearing Device | 8532319 | Siemens Medial Instruments Pte. Ltd. (Singapore, SG) |
7/09/2010 |
9/10/2013 |
Hearing device Having One or More In-the-Canal Vibrating Extensions | 8532321 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
7/07/2008 |
9/10/2013 |
Method and System for Providing Binaural Hearing Assistance | 8532307 | Phonak AG (Stafa, CH) |
1/30/2007 |
9/10/2013 |
Bone Conduction Device for a Single Sided Deaf Recipient | 8532322 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
3/31/2009 |
9/10/2013 |
Hearing Device with Frequency shifting and Associated Method | 8538053 | Siemens Medical Instruments Pte. Ltd. (Singapoer, SG) |
1/28/2011 |
9/17/2013 |
Hearing Aid | 8538056 | Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, Japan) |
1/13/2012 |
9/17/2013 |
Method for Communicating with a Hearing Aid | 8538050 | Zounds Hearing Inc (Phoenix) |
2/17/2006 |
9/17/2013 |
Hearing Aid, Computing Device, and Method for Selecting a Hearing Aid Profile | 8538049 | Audiotoniq Inc. (Austin, Texas) |
2/09/2011 |
9/17/2013 |
Semi-Permanent Canal Hearing Device and Insertion Method | 8538055 | InSound Medical Inc. (Newark, Calif.) |
2/15/2008 |
9/17/2013 |
Systems and Methods for Obtaining Hearing Enhancement Fittings for a Hearing Aid Device | 8538033 | Sonic Innovations, Inc. (Salt Lake City) |
9/01/2009 |
9/17/2013 |
Generation of Probe Noise in a feedback Cancellation System | 8538052 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, Denmark) |
6/26/2008 |
9/17/2013 |
Remote Programming System for Programmable Hearing Aids | 8542842 | Richard Zaccaria (Baldwinsville, NY) |
1/21/2010 |
9/24/2013 |
Cellphone Managed Hearing Eyeglasses | 8543061 | Suhami Associates ltd (Petah Tikva, Israel) |
3/27/2012 |
9/24/2013 |
Bone Conduction Device with a Movement Sensor | 8542857 | Cochlear Limited (NSW, AU) |
12/30/2010 |
9/24/2013 |
Method to Estimate the sound Pressure Level at Eardrum Using Measurements Away from the Eardrum | 8542841 | Starkey Laboratories, Inc. (Eden Prairie, MN) |
1/11/2010 |
9/24/2013 |
Hearing Device with a Space-saving Arrangement of Microphones and Sound Openings | 8542858 | Siemens Medical Instruments Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) |
12/03/2010 |
9/24/2013 |
System for Reducing Acoustic feedback in Hearing Aids Using Inter-Aural Signal Transmission, Method and Use | 8542855 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, Denmark) |
7/21/2009 |
9/24/2013 |
Hearing Aid | 8542856 | Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, Japan) |
12/01/2010 |
9/24/2013 |
Auxiliary Member for Hearing Aid | 8548182 | Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, Japan) |
5/23/2011 |
10/01/2013 |
System, Method, Program, and Integrated Circuit for Hearing Aid | 8548180 | Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, Japan) |
11/09/2010 |
10/01/2013 |
Light Activated Hearing Aid Device | 8545383 | Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (Hannover, Germany) |
1/30/2009 |
10/01/2013 |
Hearing Device with Individually Aligned Electronic Component and Production Method | 8548183 | Siemens Medical Instruments Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) |
2/17/2010 |
10/01/2013 |
Hearing Aid Fitting Device | 8548179 | Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, Japan) |
11/29/2011 |
10/01/2013 |
Method of Generating an Optimized Venting Channel in a Hearing Instrument | 8554352 | Siemens Hearing Instruments Inc. (Piscataway, N.J.) |
5/07/2009 |
10/08/2013 |
Method and Apparatus for Directional Acoustic Fitting of Hearing Aids” | 8553897 | Dean Robert Gary Anderso (Orem, Utah) |
7/23/2009 |
10/08/2013 |
Method and Hearing Aid for Changing the Sequence of Program Positions | 8553916 | Siemens Medical Instruments Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) |
4/16/2009 |
10/08/2013 |
Method for Actively Reducing Occlusion Comprising Plausibility Check and corresponding Hearing Apparatus | 8553917 | Siemens Medical Instruments Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) |
3/12/2009 |
10/08/2013 |
Device and Method to Reduce Ear Wax Clogging of Acoustic Ports, Hearing Aid Sealing System, and Feedback Reduction System | 8554350 | Personics Holdings Inc. (Boca Raton, Fla) |
10/15/2009 |
10/08/2013 |
Hearing Aid Adjustment Device, Hearing Aid Adjustment Method, and Program for Hearing Aid Adjustment | 8553915 | Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, Japan) |
2/06/2012 |
10/08/2013 |
Hearing Aid Device | 8565460 | Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, Japan) |
10/17/2011 |
10/22/2013 |
Hearing Aid | 8565456 | Panasonic Corp. (Osaka, Japan) |
11/02/2011 |
10/22/2013 |
Media Player and Adapter for Providing Audio Data to Hearing Aid | 8565458 | Audiotoniq Inc. (Austin, Texas |
3/03/2011 |
10/22/2013 |
Hearing Aid Insertion Tool | 8571247 | John J. Oezer (Bradenton, Fla.) |
8/18/2011 |
10/29/2013 |
Wireless communication Devce and HAC Module Thereof | 8571246 | Chi Mei Communication Systems Inc. (New Taipei, Taiwan) |
5/31/2011 |
10/29/2013 |
Method for adapting Sound in a Hearing Aid Device by Frequency Modification and Such a Device | 8571242 | Phonak AG (Stafa, Switzerland) |
5/30/2008 |
10/29/2013 |
Hearing Aid Wireless Network | 8571241 | GN ReSound A/S (Ballerup, Denmark) |
8/17/2010 |
10/29/2013 |
editor’s note: The Patent Series is updated every two months. Click links for patents approved in Jan/Feb 2014, Nov/Dec 2013, September/October 2013, Jul/Aug 2013, May/Jun 2013, Mar/Apr 2013, Jan/Feb 2013, Nov/Dec 2012
image courtesy of intangible.me