US Patent Issued to Applied Minds on Nov. 4 for "Method and apparatus for protecting data in a portable electronic device" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,464,344, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to Applied Minds LLC (Burbank, Calif.).

"Method and apparatus for protecting data in a portable electronic device" was invented by Bran Ferren (Beverly Hills, Calif.) and W. Daniel Hillis (Toluca Lake, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Data in a portable electronic device is protected by using external and internal status detection means to determine if the device is misplaced, lost, or stolen. The device then takes, singly or in combination, one of several actions to protect the data on the device, including declaring its location to an owner or service provider, locking the device or specific ...