According to a press release, Networks In Motion has been granted a U.S. Patent titled “Position Determination System - System and method for providing routing, mapping, and relative position information to users of a communication network” which essentially covers all types of location based services using a GPS enabled device.

This patent is a news which none of the mobile application developers would like to hear.  There have been so many developments in the mobile social networking and GPS based location services space in 2008 itself.  In fact, almost all of the applications developed at MIT as part of Google’s Android Developer Challenge offer some or the other kind of location based service.  Since Networks In Motion has now patented the core functionality of these applications i.e. sending and receiving user’s location, finding nearby establishments and driving directions on the basis of location etc.  I am just thinking about what is going to be their next step.  We all know what happened to Vonage.

The abstract posted on the United States Patent and Trademark Office is as follows:

The present invention is directed to a system and method for providing real-time position information of one party to another party by utilizing a conventional telecommunication network system such as the convention telephone network, a mobile telecommunications network, a computer network, or the Internet. More specifically, the preferred embodiments of the present invention allow a caller and a receiver of a telephone call to provide to and receive from each other position information related to the caller and/or receiver’s physical location, including address information, GPS coordinates, nearby fixed locations such as a parking structure, etc. Additionally, the preferred embodiments of the present invention allow a caller and receiver to retrieve routing instructions or maps for traveling to or from each other. In another embodiment of the present invention, a party may locate the position of another party via the entry of the other party’s unique identifier such as a phone number of the other party’s mobile phone. In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the position information of a party may be concurrently delivered to another party’s computer terminal whereby the other party can process the information in further detail.

Although I respect inventions by companies and their efforts and intellectual property but I feel that invention is best realized when it remains open.  Patenting closes, or at least restricts, the use of invention to a select few who could afford to pay a price for it.

Let’s see how the mobile social networking and location based services sector shapes up now.

You can read the official and complete version of Networks In Motion’s “Position Determination System” patent document, in case you are interested.

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