Location-Based Search Was Patented In 1999

greenbird writes "Another patent fiasco has begun. Wired reports that a patent on location-based Internet searches was filed in 1996 and granted in 1999 (patent is here). A patent troll company name Geomas acquired the patent and has filed suit against Verizon in none other than Marshall, Texas. They claim this is the first in what will be a long line of lawsuits. Geomas has amassed a $20M war chest in venture capital to use for getting rich off of a clearly obvious idea."

Comments

Re:Obvious?

[Red Flayer]

As a Vonage subscriber and hating what Verizon is doing to them, I'm all for someone doing a goatse on Verizon.

Lots of things are obvious after they have been done for the first time.

So... by replying to the OP in this thread, you're saying that the first time someone did a goatse, it was obvious?!

I highly doubt it, as there is NO WAY anyone can conceivably argue that goatse is obvious. I mean, you can't really say we all would have thought of doing goatse, except that guy did it first.

Oh, wait. I see -- you just replied to the FP so your comment would be at the top of the comments section. NVM.