Category: Featured News

Internet giant Google has settled with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) in regards to its antitrust lawsuit that allows smaller players in the mobile industry access to mobile patents. The move is said to lower the amount of suits related to patent holders.

Google’s hold on patents

Philip Solis, of ABI Research in Oyster Bay, NY, stated that concerns have been raised about Google buying ‘standard essential patents’ from Motorola, essentially giving Google the ability to greatly suppress smaller competition. This settlement states what Google has said all along – that they would not use the patents in such a manner.

“It could start a trend around standard essential patents not being used for offensive purposes,” Solis said. “That is a good thing because it means potentially less litigation.” He goes on to say that bigger companies are not effected by having to work around patents in the mobile industry, but smaller companies lack the resources to do so.

What it means for competitors

Smart phones, gaming consoles, tablets, and even online search advertising are all affected in this settlement. Google will allow competition to license patents on what are called critical standardized technologies for all of the above. When Google acquired Motorola Mobility, it gained hundreds of different patents. Many of these are for most basic functions like device internet connectivity.

Google agrees to allow use of standard patents and thus the number of patent-related lawsuits should drop. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement that Google has made a step that allows consumers to enjoy the benefits of competition in the online marketplace as well through the gadgets that they buy.

“This doesn’t remove the patents issue in general,” Solis said. Overall, he believes that this agreement opens up markets in both advertising and the mobile device market. Google has agreed not to use patents to delay other companies from releasing new products in a timely manner. It is not perfect, however.

Online Advertising

Google is known as an online giant in search and also in search related advertising. As part of this agreement, Google will give those that advertise online more flexibility to use their program as well as the advertising programs of their competitors. The company also promises that any site can remain excluded from Google vertical search results while still remaining visible under their standard search.

Entrepreneurs come together to introduce Stori

A small group of entrepreneurs from Colorado Springs, Colorado, have been working on developing a new smart phone application that offers location-based services. The application is billed by the group as being the “Wikipedia for locations.” The application, called Stori, is designed to allow users to post photos, video, and other content to specific locations in order to document their experiences. These experiences can then be accessed by anyone that uses the mobile application.

Stori aims to begin public tests this year

The entrepreneurs — Dan MacFadyen, Justin Lukasavige, Taylor Holmes, and Justin Bergen — founded Stori in order to develop the application, which shares the same name as its developer. The location-based, social media application is expected to begin public testing in late February. Stori currently aims to attract some 600,000 users by the end of 2013. Stori also aims to raise more than $500,000 from angel investors in order to aid in the development process and pay salaries for the development and marketing staff. The project is currently being funded in its entirety by the small group of entrepreneurs that founded it.

Location-based applications gaining ground with consumers

Location-based applications have become widely popular with consumers. Many people have shown interest in using social media platforms to check-in to locations and share their experiences with their friends. Stori may be another way to do this, as it provides people to visit locations and witness the experiences people have had there. In this regard, the video content supported by Stori is likely to be the most successful.

Stori to connect with Google Places and Facebook

Once launched, the Stori application will be connected to the Google Places service. This will enable the application to tap into a vast reserve of location-based information. The application will be able to import and export content to social networking platforms. Users will be able to delay their posts for a certain number of hours for security purposes.