Update: Judges Invalidates Encyclopedia Britannica Patent on Interactive Maps
On Friday a judge upheld that the patents were (there were two according to this story) indeed invalid.
- KansasCity.com
—- original post 8/14/09——
This case has been brewing for some years. Encyclopedia Britannica filed suit against a seven GPS vendors (TomTom and Toyota among them) alleging patent infringement on an old patent about providing data on interactive maps. The case was tossed out by US district judge Lee Yeakel in Austin, Texas since the patent was determined to be invalid.
The patent related to displaying information about locations, something EB did in its electronic encyclopedias. The company felt that invention was being used in navigation devices and began filing suit against GPS and in-car navigation device makers in 2006 and 2007.
