Google in new Maps patent row - but not with Apple
Skyhook: Hey, Wi-Fi data slurping was OUR idea!
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Wi-Fi location database biz Skyhook has launched fresh legal action against Google, claiming the advertising giant's maps service infringes nine of its geo-location patents.
Skyhook has tried before to land Google in trouble by alleging in a Massachusetts court that the web goliath's Android operating system forces mobile phone users to use its location-finding services instead of Skyhook's as well as the infringement of four patents.
Now Skyhook, which maps Wi-Fi base stations to their physical locations, has filed a lawsuit in Delaware with a new set of patent claims. It demands a permanent injunction on Google Maps as well as damages. All nine patents deal with geo-location from nearby WLAN access points, a popular technique for position-finding because it can work inside buildings where GPS satellite signals are hard to pick up, and also because the limited range of WLANs offers a fairly precise location compared to the wide-ranging area covered by a mobile mast. Use of wireless signals also avoids or minimises the power drain of GPS receivers.
Skyhook was an early mover in the field of wireless location, and its services were used at times by major players such as Apple. But nowadays every Android phone - unless the user opts out of radio location - acts as a mobile sensor, continually sniffing for new radio signals as it moves about and sending the info back to Google's databases, which are also fed by the company's Street View slurpcar fleet. The Chocolate Factory has long since moved past any need to use Skyhook's services.
Now Skyhook claims that Google wilfully infringed on its patents, which it found out about during talks between the two companies. Google's map app - which was recently thrown off Apple's iOS platform - can look to nearby Wi-Fi networks to work out where the user is, provided the networks' locations are known to the search engine.
"Google has been aware of Skyhook's patent portfolio since at least 2005, when Michael Shean, Skyhook's senior vice president, communicated with various Google employees regarding Skyhook's patented wireless location technology," the complaint states.
"Mr Shean further met and communicated with additional Google employees in 2006 and 2007 regarding Skyhook's wireless location technology."
In its previous court case alleging unfair business practices, Skyhook claimed that Google forced mobile-makers to stop using Skyhook if they wanted to keep using the Android OS.
Google had not returned a request for comment at the time of publication. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Hmm. Coincidence?
I shall put on my very best tinfoil hat and give it a polish to say this.
It could be Google sponsoring the lawsuit....
How so? Well, Google get Skyhook to sue them. Google settles with Skyhook and agrees licensing. Now, we all know how much Apple hate to be beholden to third parties and insist on controlling everything themselves, so Apple then ensure that WiFi based location does not go into Apple maps to avoid having to license the (now with legal precedent) Skyhook patents.
Endgame: Apple maps is never as good as Google maps.....
Hmm. Coincidence?
So, just after iOS 6 ships with a heavily publicised standalone mapping application (albeit one that looks terrible in comparison to Google Maps), a company pops out of the woodwork to sue Google and get an injunction against their mapping system.
Maybe Apple has taken up the Microsoft tactic of sponsoring lawsuits...
WiFi geolocation is just bloody obvious to me. It's just landmarks but in radio space.
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