T-Mobile USA hit with patent suit over geolocation technology

Posted by Cash On on 2013-08-29 0

Patent company
Guidance IP has filed a complaint
against T-Mobile USA for allegedly
infringing a patent related to cell
phone geolocation.
The complaint has been filed in the
U.S. District Court for the Middle
District of Florida, the residential
jurisdiction for the headquarters of
Harris Corporation, which originally
owned the patent in question,
according to North South Holdings,
the parent of Guidance IP.
This suit claims infringement of a
patent called "System and method
for determining the geolocation of a
transmitter", which, in this case,
relates to the location of cell phones
on T-Mobile's network, North South
said in a statement Monday.
The geolocation patent is one of over
200 it acquired from Harris in 2012.
The complaint against T-Mobile is the
first based on them, but North South
anticipates more, according to CEO
Anthony Hayes.
T-Mobile didn't immediately respond
to a request for a comment on the
case.
North South was formed in
November last year with the intent of
acquiring patents and monetize them
through sales, litigation or licensing.
Recently it entered into an agreement
to be acquired by Spherix, described
as a scientific research company.
Mapping and geolocation continues
to be a hot topic in the smartphone
sector, as both vendors and mobile
operators look to improve their
offerings as competition heats up.
Last week, Qualcomm signed a deal
with Nokia and its Here Maps
platform to improve indoor
positioning and earlier this year
Google acquired crowdsourced
mapping app developer Waze in a bid
to add more real-time navigation
tools to its own Maps software.