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Jason
March 25, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Thanks for the post. Patent technologies is not a new phenomenon but as you suggested is intensified with shifts in the market economy. Seeking legal counsel prior to patenting or using anything that might be questionable is a good idea. If anyone is in Michigan, there’s a great law firm that specializes in property law (intellectual, patent,etc.) and can be a great resource. Check them out here:www.sikoralaw.com
Jason
Lani Rosales
March 28, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Thanks for the tip, Jason.
Rick Thomas
March 28, 2011 at 4:36 am
Your assertion of the ‘Boopsie lawsuit’ is not entirely correct the way I understand it. Smarter Agent is claiming they have a patent on the geographic location of a user, not search in general on a mobile device. That is a big difference.
In other words, if I’m standing on the corner of 4th and Main, I can by my geographic position, search what is close to me.
That in a nutshell I believe is their claim. If you take the geographic location of the search out of the application, then you should be in the clear. If they are asserting that any search on a mobile device falls under the patent, then the pdf you link clearly doesn’t make the case in my opinion. But like you said, I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t play one on the weekends either.
Lani Rosales
March 28, 2011 at 1:05 pm
Rick, it’s tricky because as we’re all saying, we’re not lawyers, but most real estate search apps ping your geographic location, especially those utilizing augmented reality (of which the number is growing). I’ve heard several interpretations, but the point remains that several innovators feel stifled by the lawsuit and are afraid to improve their offering in the event they get sued.
Jim Colburn
April 18, 2011 at 5:58 pm
Lani,
You are absolutely right. Rent.com recently came out with their iPhone and Android apps, and surprise surprise, it does not include GPS-based searching. I bet you anything that this lawsuit has everything to do with their decision to not include GPS-based searching.
Lani Rosales
April 18, 2011 at 7:06 pm
Jim, I have a feeling it will impact several technologies in under the radar ways. That's a great case study, thanks for pointing them out!
Maciej
July 13, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Thanks for an interesting tip. It is even more interesting for me since I have developed a technology to provide those location based services without actually violating any of those patents. The technology actually never submits any location information to the server to get the nearby listings, a step on which, I believe, most (if not all) location based software is based on. This actually makes things interesting. 🙂
Erik Goldhar
February 22, 2012 at 12:27 am
Jim – we just re-launched Clikbrix (probably the first and certainly one of the most successful mobile solutions for Realtors and Brokers) and held off in including GPS search as one of our features. We need to see how this plays out.
If you ask me patents should protect inventors. Smarter Agent did not invent Databases and they did not invent GPS. They combined the two and called it an invention.
Before this patent there was a patent that protected serving up restaurant locations based on the GPS of the user. The process existed (and therefore legal prior art perhaps) and all SA did was change the content being served up not the process or the invention.
Just my thoughts. Even without search Clikbrix still offers the best mobile solution for Realtors in the market today and, oh by the way, we are FREE.
Great post Lani – Thank you!
Erik Goldhar
Clikbrix
Berry Enloe
August 26, 2011 at 10:39 pm
I am the Cofounder of REcake.com and can speak to this directly.
We chose specifically not to violate this "patent"- yes it holds us up tremendously. As one franchise CEO described it to me, "It's like they patented breathing".
And Rick is right- SA has several patents- all relating to real estate search "based on location of the mobile device"
I am surprised that the USPTO has not been presented an Ex-Parte appeal of these patents. You can be sure we will do that as soon as we find it relevant.
In the mean time we are very close to figuring out a way to do location bases search that does not violate any SA patent.
So to Lani's point- yes, the SA patents are 100% stifling innovation.