Earlier this week, I read a very interesting story about Nokia’s  patent application for tattoos inserted under the skin that alerts a user when their cell phone rings, or has a new message or text or if their battery is low.  US PAT APP 20120062371, HAPTIC COMMUNICATION.  The abstract section of the patent application states,

“In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus comprises: a material attachable to skin, the material capable of detecting a magnetic field and transferring a perceivable stimulus to the skin, wherein the perceivable stimulus relates to the magnetic field.”

Remarkably, “cyborg” appears less frequently in the case law (54 times) than  “ferromagnetic”   (83 times) – as in “ferromagnetic tattoo ink”.

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Westlaw Database: US Patent Applications (US-PAT-APP)

Query: DA(3/2012) & NOKIA & TATTOO

Sample Prior Art Approach:

The US Class code is 340/407.1 (Tactual indication).  The IPC is G08 6/00 (Tactile signalling systems). Using Stedman’s Medical Dictionary (STEDMANS), we found alternative terms for skin (query: ti(skin)): epidermis and corium (dermis). SYN: cutis.

Westlaw Database: US Utility Patents (US-UTIL)

Query: 340/407.1 G08-6/00 & TI,AB(TATTOO SKIN EPIDERMIS CORIUM DERMIS CUTIS)

KeyCite

I am monitoring this patent application with a KeyCite Alert. Once you pull up the patent application, you can set up a KeyCite Alert by clicking on the link on the left side “Monitor with KeyCite Alert” and the set up wizard will take you through the steps to set it up.