Posts Tagged: "Google Maps"

CAFC Vacates PTAB Decision to Uphold Conversant Wireless Patent Challenged by Google, LG

On Tuesday, November 20th, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a nonprecedential decision in Google LLC v. Conversant Wireless Licensing, which vacated a decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to uphold the validity of patent claims owned by Conversant after conducting an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding petitioned by Google and LG Electronics… It is hard to reconcile decisions where the Federal Circuit bends over backwards to give more process and procedural rights to petitioners when for so long patent owners have been railroaded at the PTAB and then had those summary execution proceedings rubber stamped by the Federal Circuit. If increased scrutiny on the PTAB is a two-way street I welcome it.

Google Maps update likely to feature text-based parking notification and more

Getting around may get a little bit easier for some drivers as Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) adds on new features to the 9.34 beta-release of Google Maps… Some of the methods protecting the technology behind the parking notification feature can be found in U.S. Patent No. 8484151. Predicting Parking Availability protects a method that, by first predicting the population density in an area and then applying it to a parking availability model, can estimate whether parking will be easy or hard. Because the parking availability model makes use of a function that predicts parking based on population density, the computer-stored information can then relate the parking availability to the user of the technology. This transfer of information was first envisioned as a layer over the map showing parking availability according to the patent’s abstract.

Google Seeks Patent on Social News Aggregator

We profile one patent application that seeks to converge content from social networks with the news feed that a person sees when browsing a news aggregator service. Google wants to patent a system that analyzes a user’s social media feeds to pull up relevant media or comments that may enhance the value of browsing through news stories. Other patent applications protect better routing systems, both for public transportation as well as personal vehicles, and one discusses an interesting system of providing instant text translations between two foreign parties on one tablet computer. In the section regarding the patents issued recently to Google, we’ve found a few interesting improvements to online digital technologies, especially those meant to help digital rights owners and legal teams. One patent protects a system of identifying a copyrighted composition by analyzing the melody of a live recording, while another provides a more cost-effective process of electronic discovery of legal documents. More routing services are protected by other Google patents that we discuss here, showing Google is actively seeking to expand its holdings in online mapping applications.

Google Patents Disclose Advances for Google Maps

A number of interesting patent applications deal with Google’s efforts to improve online mapping applications. One such application would protect a system of downloading map tiles for offline routing. An issued patent assigned to Google protects a system of depicting multi-level buildings three-dimensionally so that browsers can view flooring plans. Other USPTO activity showcases Google’s focus on creating better media systems for mobile devices. One patent application would protect a system of synchronizing magazine content on apps for better layout among different devices. Another patent application allows users to selectively view images to conserve data usage. Finally, we look at a patent application filed to protect a system of ranking news articles based on the source publication’s quality.