Details are in the press release (interesting timing to announce it at the start of Where 2.0) but the basics are:

- issued U.S. Patent No. 7,333,820, (filed in 2002, granted Feb 2008) titled "Position Determination System

- releases states the patent "protects its intellectual property involving social networking applications such as requesting and/or pushing a user's location via a GPS-enabled mobile device through a wireless network."

Here's the abstract:

The present invention is directed to a system and method for providing real-time position information of one party to another party by utilizing a conventional telecommunication network system such as the convention telephone network, a mobile telecommunications network, a computer network, or the Internet. More specifically, the preferred embodiments of the present invention allow a caller and a receiver of a telephone call to provide to and receive from each other position information related to the caller and/or receiver's physical location, including address information, GPS coordinates, nearby fixed locations such as a parking structure, etc. Additionally, the preferred embodiments of the present invention allow a caller and receiver to retrieve routing instructions or maps for traveling to or from each other. In another embodiment of the present invention, a party may locate the position of another party via the entry of the other party's unique identifier such as a phone number of the other party's mobile phone. In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the position information of a party may be concurrently delivered to another party's computer terminal whereby the other party can process the information in further detail.

iPodNN reports on a new Nike patent suggesting the company will be enhancing the Nike+ Ipod fitness options. Now the shoepod simply tracks pace and distance (based on your stride and time). New versions may include other sensors for heart rate, EKG, hydration (how do they measure that?) and perhaps GPS. There may be options for the device to interact with an iPhone or computer and show motivational video.

I lost my Garmin ForeRunner (GPS watch) last fall and have yet to replace it. My iPod shuffle is however my constant companion when I travel on public transportation or do long runs on my own. Anything small enough to clip to my hat for 3 hours of entertainment, and not be impacted by heat, cold, sweat and the odd drop on the floor, is ok by me.

Well I guess it's a happy ending; I'll let you decide. This tale is from C|net's coverage of a recent Ocean Tomo patent auction. I've written about the organization before.

Realtor Martin Eldridge, for instance, got $1 million for a location-based application that combines GPS-like data with information services. If you walk by a painting rapidly in a museum, for example, you might just get the name of the painter sent to your cell phone. If you pause, it might forward you the date it was painted and other details.

He came up with the idea while driving down Highway 1 in California.


Taking bids by phone. Many bidders call in their bids by phone to maintain secrecy. Phone buyers, however, will also have observers in the room.
(Credit: Ocean Tomo)
"I wanted to know what I was driving by," he said, elated and sipping champagne. He wrote Google, Garmin, Microsoft (all of whom have extensive patent portfolios that the rigorously defend) and several other companies about licensing. None responded. The auction gave him a way to make some money off of it.

The new suit follow a suits filed against agent Diane Sarkisian for using map-based software for real estate searches that the patent owner, REAL, claims infringes. The suit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles by REAL is against:

• The National Association of Realtors (NAR), with approximately 1.3 million real estate broker and agent members nationwide;
• Nationwide real estate brokerage firms, including RE/MAX and Keller Williams Realty;
• Home builders, such as Pulte Homes and Ryland Group;
• The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB);
• Enterprise computer software providers to the real estate industry, including Fidelity National
• Real Estate Solutions, First American Corporation, and others;
• MOVE, Inc., the company that operates flagship real estate websites such as Realtor.com, MOVE.com, HomeBuilder.com, RentNet.com, and SeniorHousingNet.com; and
• More than 25 other defendants representing nationwide classes of claimed infringers: real estate brokers, agents, multiple listing services, new home builders, and rental property owners/managers.

REAL is putting together five class action suits to demand remediation for "direct infringement, contributory infringement, and inducement to infringe." REAL expects compensatory and triple damages.

Mark Tornetta who originated the patent, explains that he and REAL have tried to get organizations to license the patent with little luck. Now, he said, they can't wait any longer.

News on this story has always come from Inman.com (a real estate site, which I suspect has this behind its pay wall) and via Scott Tatro, an interested party who often passes along information. This story, a press release which I found at the American Homeowners Resource Center, is based on a material from Linden Alschuler & Kaplan, Inc., a Public Relations firm. That tells me the plaintiffs want to get the story out in a big way. Update: Scott Tatro sent me a copy of the release after I'd posted this.

- AHRC

I saw this yesterday at Christian Spanring's blog , and didn't really understand it. He suggests Apple is getting into pedestrian navigation.

After reading this from Tech Radar, I'm still confused. It suggests that mapping would be delivered like podcasts and somehow be provided based on location, though no use of Wi-Fi, GPS or a network is required. Huh?

I tracked back to Electonista. It spins it a bit differently:

The implementation would see an application or service turn map data into a series of audio and video elements based on location; driving directions and other maps could be spoken aloud with a view of the map at that location as a guide.

My take is that it's another way to store/deliver LBS information (directions, content and ads) outside of the satnav devices (which frankly are doing much of the same thing - just not on Apple hardware). Further, it suggests GPS, while not yet available on Apple devices, might be in use and this system, or another was not available.

Next up, the actual patent. Here's the abstract:

Improved techniques to facilitate generation, management and delivery of personalized media items for users are disclosed. Users are able to influence or control content within a personalized media item. According to one aspect, personalized media items can pertain to generation and delivery of map-based media items. These media items are playable by a media playback device. For example, when a map-based media item is played by a media playback device, an audio output and/or a visual output can be provided. The audio output can be provided by digital audio, and the visual output can be provided by at least one digital image that is associated with at least a portion of the digital audio.

The claims seem to indicate you request the data (a route) and it's delivered from a server to your device and the playback includes audio and at least one image. It's sort of broad and seems to be far more about media delivery than anything else.

Another patent via Gary Price, this time from Google:

Markup Language for Interactive Geographic Information System (filed June 12, 2007)

"Data-driven guarded evaluation of conditional-data associated with data objects is used to control activation and processing of the data objects in an interactive geographic information system. Methods of evaluating conditional-data to control activation of the data objects are disclosed herein. Data-structures to specify conditional data are also disclosed herein."

I don't really get this - but I think it's about giving the user more control of the display of large data sets. Perhaps readers can help me out?