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Google Awarded Broad Patent For Location-Based Advertising

Posted by kdawson on from the you-are-here-and-we-own-you dept.

Mashable has a report of a patent that just issued (6-1/2 years after filing) — apparently Google now has a lock on location-based advertising. It's not clear that the search company intends to assert the patent against any other companies (such as emerging rival Apple), but it's useful as leverage. Here is the patent. Update: 03/02 14:34 GMT by S : Reader butlerm noted that the incorrect patent was linked. It now points to the correct URL.

2 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Read it first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    You guys may want to have a look at the patent text before making ignorant comments. Oh, sorry - guess I forgot this was /. Same goes to the author of the article. What do these guys do, spend their days looking for keywords in patent text that might rouse up some geeks?

  2. Re:WTF? Prior Art! - IP Address-based geolocation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    And to grandparent: Just because it's been done doesn't mean you can't patent it.

    US patent law disagrees with you, however much of the world operates like that. The US is a 'first to invent' country where the right to patent is given to the first person to invent the item, not the first to submit a patent application.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_to_file_and_first_to_invent