The US-Patent Office has promised Apple a patent for location-based information services that may effect other providers of location-based services. The industrial property law with the code RE42,927 and the title “System and method for obtaining an using location specific information” is broad enough to affect all mobile services using location-based material.
The patent describes a location-based information system which uses a locating system like GPS (Global Positioning System) provided by Navstar in combination with a network. The original text describes the following:

“A location information system uses a positioning system, such as the civilian Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS), in combination with a distributed network. The location information system includes a radio transceiver for communicating to the distributed network and a GPS receiving system. The GPS receiving system receives a signal from the GPS and converts it into a coordinate entry. The coordinate entry is transmitted to the distributed network for retrieval of corresponding location specific information. The location specific information may reside on a web page. The coordinate entry may be incorporated into the web page address that supports the coordinate entry or linked to an existing web page associated with the coordinate entry. The web page and associated information is displayed. Bar code labels, infrared beacons and other labeling systems may also be used in the location information system in place of or in addition to the GPS receiving system to supply location identification information.”

Because the containments are not further specified, the industrial property law apparently included all location-based information from smartphone users – regardless whether photos, text, audio, or video data. This could lead to all companies offering location-based services for cellular and smartphone users to buy rights for a license to user these products from Apple. Not only local search engines and map services will face the consequences – networks like Facebook, Foursquare, and other couponing platforms as well as other services will be affected. These providers all offer services that meet the stipulations of the patent. Now we just have to wait and see how Apple will handle the situation.

Originally, the company Xerox applied for the patent in 1998 and received it two years later, according to a report from CNET News. But Apple purchased the patent in 2009 and reapplied.