Scott Tatro shares the latest in an article at Directions Magazine.

This time it was UPS that settled with Acacia Research Corp.'s Telematics Corp. No details other that the lawsuit in question related to "tracking vehicles on a map."

- AP
- press release

The application for Location based media presentation describes a method for delivering different digital media content depending on where the user is located. Thus you get different information if you were in the U.S. vs. Spain, running uphill or down, or enterring a study hall. The location informatoin could come from GPS or be assigned.

The abstract:

Media can be presented based on location associated with presentation of media (e.g., physical location of a device that is to present media). Presentation of media can be effectively controlled in order to automatically present a first media content (e.g., a list of songs, an album) in accordance with a first set of media presentation attributes or parameters (e.g., volume associated with presentation of audible media) at a first location, while a second media content is automatically presented in accordance with a second set of media presentation attributes or parameters when the current location is changed to a second location.

via MacNN

A new patent app from Google was made public last week called "Ranking and Clustering of Geo-Located Objects." Says ZDnet's Saw: It "appears to describe a method in which geographical location objects of the type seen in Google Earth and Google Maps would be more efficiently classified in a database."

He goes on to quote the document which states that, as I understand it, geographic data is tough to store. Thus, writes Google, "This document describes systems and methods for storing and accessing geo-located content, such as 3D content to be displayed on a model of the earth. The content is stored in a multi-level hierarchical index having embedded therein information about descendants at each level of the index."

I'll turn to our tech/database readers. Is this a new better way to store data? Is it something just Google will use (it seems to be for large datasets) or is it for the rest of us, too? Os this is set of tools that could be implemented in a variety of databases?

via ZDnet Blog of Russel Shaw

A press release from Acacia Research Corporation announced that its subsidiary Acacia Patent Acquisition Corporati has acquired rights to a patent relating to vehicle location technology. Which patent? They don't say, but they do note:

This patented technology generally relates to systems capable of locating vehicles and providing subsequent services from a remote location. It covers satellite-based location systems, such as GPS, and is applicable to vehicle tracking, vehicle assistance services and other similar services.

This tells me that folks are gathering up such patents for future exploitation as LBS continues to grow. And, interestingly, it creates a market of "middlemen" license those patents. Back in the old days, people kept their patents. When Doug Richardson, now Exec. Dir. of the AAG was on WAMU radio earlier this week, he noted his former company's (GeoResearch) patent on using GPS to make maps using GIS.

In other geo-car related patent news CalAmp Corp. of California filed complaints in US Federal Court against Procon, Inc., Skywatch GPS LLC, and iMETRIK Solutions Inc. for infringement of two patents related to a vehicle location system for" dealers and finance companies to locate and repossess vehicles serving as collateral on loans that go into default." The patents were acquired in an acquisition in March.

- RTT News

Andrew Corp. based in Illinois, received a decision in federal court that it infringed on a patent owned by True Position (PA). It did so in a locating system it provided to a Middle East. Damages now at $45.3 million may be tripled. Andrew plans to appeal.

- MarketWatch