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August 06, 2013

T-Mobile's Geolocation Tech Targeted for Suit by Guidance IP

By Steve Anderson, Contributing TMCnet Writer

Patent lawsuits are a major part of just about any technology sector these days, and a new one has recently cropped up in the form of a suit from Guidance IP. This suit targets mobile giant T-Mobile, alleging infringement in a patent on the topic of cell phone geolocation.



The complaint was filed in Florida, where the Harris Corporation (News - Alert) is headquartered. According to Guidance IP's parent company, North South Holdings, the Harris Corporation originally held the patent, and that's what prompted the choice of venue. North South Holdings had, at last report, acquired over 200 separate patents from Harris Corporation in 2012, the geolocation patent being the one relevant to the case at hand. North South Holdings got its start back in November of last year, with the plan to acquire patents and use same to create revenue via a variety of methods, from licensing and sales to, as seen here, litigation. Meanwhile, North South also agreed to be acquired by scientific research firm Spherix. 


Image via Shutterstock

More specifically, the suit itself targets what's described as “system and method for determining the geolocation of a transmitter,” which is reasonably comparable to what T-Mobile (News - Alert) is offering, in the locating of cell phones operating on T-Mobile's network. T-Mobile, for its part, didn't respond to requests for comment on the suit.

Given that geolocation is an increasingly valuable property in the mobile device space, the North South Holdings patent may be a particularly valuable one. Recently, Qualcomm and Nokia (News - Alert) made a deal over the Here Maps platform to help improve indoor positioning capability, while Google and Waze made a deal to augment Google (News - Alert) Maps and add more navigation capability. Patents in general are proving to be a major issue as far as many technology firms go, and with constant lawsuits in play over patents and patent holders, the entire field of intellectual property is proving to be a difficult field to navigate no matter how the Guidance IP / T-Mobile affair ultimately comes out.

Technology firms now, perhaps more than ever before, need a way to negotiate the minefield that is intellectual property. A good way to find out more, and get some insights on how to tackle the rapidly growing field, is via the upcoming Synopsis under IP / Patents Telecom Sourcing (SUITS) Conference. Set to take place August 27-29 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada—and colocated with the popular ITEXPO (News - Alert) event, several major firms in the field of IP and patents from Juneau Partners to Google will be in attendance at the event, offering information on a wide variety of topics from protecting currently existing intellectual property to acquiring the currently existing property of other owners.

Intellectual property is a major issue for many businesses, from using it to protecting it to getting more of it. We've seen that first hand with the T-Mobile / Guidance IP affair, and we'll likely see it many more times to come. Intellectual property keeps the tech sector running, and issues around it will likely occur for some time to come.




Edited by Alisen Downey
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