Location Based Advertising Patents Up For Auction

from the think-anyone-might-want-those? dept

Fri, Apr 28th 2006 2:42am — Mike Masnick

Xybernaut, the wearable computing firm that has been around for ages, but never got around to selling many products... and eventually faced serious problems (and then bankruptcy) after it came out that its execs were using company funds for personal expenses, has apparently decided its latest best bet to survive is to sell off some of its patent portfolio. In the past, we'd already noted that some of Xybernaut's patents not only seemed way too broad and obvious but had some fairly well-known prior art: such as the Star Trek communicator device. The latest patents that they're selling off focus on location based advertising, which they may have timed right for an auction. There's obviously been a lot of attention in that space lately, with Google's recent plans to offer location-based ad-supported WiFi. However, when you look at the actual patents involved, they again seem extremely broad and obvious. There were plenty of people talking about the concept of location based advertising when this particular patent was filed. For a while, you couldn't go to a single wireless trade show without hearing people predict that the day was coming when you'd walk by a McDonald's and receive a McDonald's coupon on your phone (as bad an idea as that is...). The patent in question doesn't really describe anything new or innovative with regards to that. It just describes that basic concept -- which was widely discussed at the time. And, now, someone's going to spend millions on it -- and probably use it to prevent others from actually implementing it (or at least getting others to pay up for implementing this concept that everyone already understood). How does this encourage innovation again?

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7 Comments

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pet supply plus kittens holland michigan, 28 Apr 2006 @ 2:34am

Offers a large selection of items such as crates,
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mthorn, 28 Apr 2006 @ 2:52am

Patents are only good for two things now-adays:

1. Cashing in on other peoples inovation
2. Defending your inovation from people cashing in patents

Sadly, Google or some other entity will have to buy the patent just to protect from #1.

"Defending your inovation from being copied" should be the only reason on that list, but lately it is nowhere to be found.
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Republican Gun, 28 Apr 2006 @ 4:55am

Distributions
You can pay personal bills with company money. You need to categorize it as a distribution though.

This whole patent, copyright, and other IP crap is making me look forward to anarchy.
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- Thomas Träscher, 21 Oct 2006 @ 11:13am
  
  Re: Distributions
  tja, das ist wohl scheisse:http://www.ad2hand.com/shops.html
  
  gruss,
  tom
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LBS Dave, 28 Apr 2006 @ 6:09am

LBS Not New
I ponder how the patent could hold up. LBS has been around for a long time. Its roots are in triangulation, which has been used by the military since WWI.

Blue tooth offers a form of Location Based Advertising as part of its grand plan. This was proposed quite some time ago.

The people from Lo-Jack or their parent company have patented LBS (read GPS) based services using celular towers for more than 12 years now.

Rockwell Automation and a small bevy of other automation companies have patents sewn up in the LBS arena as well.

Whoever buys the Xybernaut patent will be up for a "Battle Royal" with some other major players in the market. The battle will be over the patent and who actually came up with it first.
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Wizard Prang, 28 Apr 2006 @ 6:54am

Once again, the problem is...
...that the USPTO does not seem able to do its job.
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Rick, 28 Apr 2006 @ 12:16pm

The only innovation I see in patents anymore is more ways to extort money for obvious ideas and/or actions. There is nothing material, no 'invention' and there are no new ideas.

hmmm, sounds like congress...
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