I 've been involved with this for the last few months and it's been an education.
In very simple terms, claims 20 and 26 of the '622 patent address using "The Internet" as the conduit between the query and the data.
This does not include modems or direct connections.
Prior art would have to be before January 1994 and it would have to be publicly known, not in a lab.
The Xerox PARC project fits that criteria and there is a possibility that a 3rd reexamination may be filed. The first two reexaminations failed to mention the Xerox PARC project and did not reverse claims 20 or 26.
To the person that wondered if a third party can file a request for reexamination, the answer is yes. An ex parte request can be filed for $2520 plus the cost of the attorney that writes it for you.
Unless and until the patent or claims 20 and 26 are rejected, anyone using "The Internet" for mapping is at risk. This goes way beyond the real estate industry.
Re: Company name
http://www.vendoralley.com/2011/06/15/another-civix-lesson-guest-post-by-robert-drummer/
I 've been involved with this for the last few months and it's been an education.
In very simple terms, claims 20 and 26 of the '622 patent address using "The Internet" as the conduit between the query and the data.
This does not include modems or direct connections.
Prior art would have to be before January 1994 and it would have to be publicly known, not in a lab.
The Xerox PARC project fits that criteria and there is a possibility that a 3rd reexamination may be filed. The first two reexaminations failed to mention the Xerox PARC project and did not reverse claims 20 or 26.
To the person that wondered if a third party can file a request for reexamination, the answer is yes. An ex parte request can be filed for $2520 plus the cost of the attorney that writes it for you.
Unless and until the patent or claims 20 and 26 are rejected, anyone using "The Internet" for mapping is at risk. This goes way beyond the real estate industry.
To the software engineer who discussed patenting "methods", here's a good one:
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=6368227
(It was overturned)
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