Google 411 Competitors Hold All The Patents

Google’s free 411 service, 800-GOOG-411, is going to face a lot of problems in the future, as rival free 411 services have been granted patents on techniques endemic to the industry Google is trying to get in on. Search Engine Journal reported that Local.com received last week a patent on a method of responding to directory assistance queries, including the referral-based business model. Meanwhile, TechCrunch reported that Jingle Network received a patent for playing a recorded advertisement based on a directory service query.
Besides the fact that the two patents may contradict each other, and should never have been granted due to them being a combination of existing technology (voice recognition) with a popular business model (referral/targeted advertising) on a known service (directory assistance), Google still has a lot to deal with. If the patents hold, Google will have to pay significant licensing fees to one or both […]

Original post by Nathan Weinberg