The Google Glass patents

I t's been fun having a look for the patents associated with Google Glass, the spectacles that enable its wearers to interact with the Web and, above all, to see projections of information.

Google Glass itself is the subject of a US trade mark application which, oddly enough, was published 18 June 2013 for opposition -- several weeks in the future, as I write.

The key term seems to be "wearable" although it is possible that some new technology involved does not depend on a wearable frame and therefore may be hard to find.

There are seven US Design patents for the look of variant models, all with the title "Wearable display device" (although one adds the word "frame", and one "section").

An article on the CNET website, published 21 February, suggests that US20130044042A, is highly relevant. The article is called Google Glass patent application gets really technical. I prefer to link to the corresponding World patent application, Wearable device with input and output structures. One of its drawings is given below.

However, three other patent applications were published in March or April and there are in all eight World patent applications by Google containing the word "Wearable".

None of these have been granted rights as B documents. One advantage of using the World documents rather than the corresponding US applications (listed here) is that search reports listing prior art found by patent office officials is often available.

These are either on A1 documents (at the end) or in separate A3 documents. The USA only publishes search reports on its granted patents, where a brief summary is given on the front page.

[24 May -- the New Yorker website has an interesting article on forerunners, Glass before Google, which links to a copy of a patent by Morton Heilig, applied for in 1957]

[7 Dec -- see my article Google surging ahead with patenting for update on wearable technology]