Lightwaves, Inc. is a technology development company headquartered in Austin, Texas with a research and development facility located in Cedar Rapids Iowa. The company is focused on the development of a wireline transmission technology TimeFluxTM, that embodies UltraWideBand (UWB) like transmission techniques over virtually any guided media. As the successor of multiple prior companies, our IP portfolio contains not only the core UWB over guided media patents (TimeFlux), but several non-core patents as well. This non-core IP is comprised of four major categories:
- Ubiquitous Location and Location Based Services
- UltraWideBand RFID
- Fiber Optic Pulse Encoding.
- Data Storage, Distribution and Delivery (NDA Required)
In these technology categories, Lightwaves has filed patents that are positioned very early in the growth of these particular technology areas. In some cases Lightwaves is the defining prior art.
It is important to note that most of the Lightwaves patents have active continuations, divisionals, and continuation-in-parts making our patent portfolio more valuable.
Core Patent Portfolio
TimeFlux (Wireline Transmission)
The Patents
Lightwaves has been awarded five related US patents, and three international patents in the technology area of wireline transmission. In addition, Lightwaves has forty open US applications, and nine international filings.
The five issued US patents are 6868419, 6976034, 7376191, 7123843, and 7376357.
The three issued international patents are 2004/8359 (South Africa), 106957 (Singapore), and 2003231277 (Australia).
These patents describe a variety of methods for providing revolutionary high bandwidth transmissions over virtually any type of conductive material, including telephone twisted pair, coaxial cable, and powerline.
Potential Markets
The potential applications in the marketplace for our “Any Wire, AnyWhere” high speed data technology include: access networks that operate over telephone twisted pairs, coax, or powerline; and in-building networks over telephone twisted pairs, coax, or powerlines in the home, multiple dwelling units (MDU), the hospitality industry (hotels and motels); and office, government, educational, and hospital buildings and campuses.
The claims surrounding the disclosed invention are very broad, and create a barrier to anyone attempting to use UWB technology to transmit and receive data over a conductive medium.
Non-Core Patent Portfolio
Ubiquitous Location and Location Based Services
The Patents
Lightwaves has been awarded five related US patents in the technology area of ubiquitous location (i.e. outdoor, indoor, and other areas shielded from GPS satellites). In addition, Lightwaves has two pending US applications.
The five issued US patents are 6201497, 6707424, 6980566, 7181257, and 7340283.
These patents describe a variety of methods for providing ubiquitous locations and pushing/pulling data based on location by re-transmitting GPS timing data onto other wireless carriers including: TV, WiFi, cell phone networks, radio, ultra wideband, etc.
Potential Markets
The potential applications in the marketplace for this technology include: E911, locating local points of interest, vehicle dispatch and routing, regional help desk routing, push advertising, advertising with local content, e-commerce, fraud detection and prevention, and digital rights management.
The claims surrounding the disclosed invention are very broad, and potentially create a stumbling block to anyone attempting to send a message to an endpoint based primarily on that end-points location.
Ultra Wideband RFID (UWB RFID)
The Patents
Lightwaves has been awarded two related US patents in the technology area of UWB RFID. In addition, Lightwaves has two pending US applications.
The two issued US patents are 6868419 and 6976034.
These patents describe the use of UWB for data modulation according to non-UWB global standards for RFID data, such as the worldwide-accepted EPCglobal Generation 2 for RFID. The major advantages of UWB include: low power (more battery life), longer range, higher data transfer rates, and more tags capable of operating in a prescribed area.
Potential Markets
The typical uses in the marketplace for this technology include: tracking and locations for persons/ animals/products, smart credit cards, toll road passes, product identification, access control, id cards, smart keys for vehicles, collecting and transmitting sensor data. In addition, UWB RFID tags can be accurately located using Lightwaves’ ubiquitous location technology discussed above.
Variable Pulse Encoded Fiber Optics
The Patents
Lightwaves has been awarded two US patent in this technology area, and another has been recently allowed. In addition, we have two related pending US applications.
The issued US patents are 7123843, and 7376357.
These patents describe the modulation of fiber optic pulses using time and other pulse characteristics other than just ON-OFF to modulate data. The major advantages of variable pulse encoding include: more bandwidth, cheaper lasers, and can be easily integrated with Lightwaves’ UWB over wireline technology.
Potential Markets
Any market that relies on existing fiber optics can use this technology to dramatically improve the utilization and performance of those assets. The technology is applicable to any optical long-haul infrastructure.
Data Storage, Distribution and Delivery
The Patent
Lightwaves has as unpublished US Patent Application in the area of network storage, distribution and delivery of streaming and non-streaming content.
The pending patent is available for international (PCT) filing and was filed a number of years ago. This fact and the unpublished nature of the patent requires disclosure only under NDA.
Potential Markets
The recent desire to distribute video/audio content on-demand over the Internet or dedicated CATV/ broadband networks would be benefited by this technology area.
Conclusion
Lightwaves Core Intellectual Property, as represented in our TimeFlux networking technology, is available for licensing for complementary applications to Lightwaves’ product plans and to facilitate our goal of making TimeFlux a global standard for any-wire networking.
Lightwaves Non-Core Intellectual Property as described above is available for license or sale to any and all interested parties without restriction.
