[Fischgericht]

No, IP Geolocation is not Twenty-Five Years old, you did not invent it, and you do not have a patent for it.

Let's see what your patent is about:

A method, computer program product and electronic device are provided for providing hyper-local geo-targeting based on validated, user-supplied geographic information, wherein the user's anonymity may be maintained. In particular, user-supplied geographic information may be collected in association with a truncated IP address. Once collected, the user-supplied information may be validated using geographic data previously derived from one or more complete IP addresses corresponding to the received truncated IP address. The derived geographic data may have been derived using a system that maps the routing infrastructure of the Internet in order to determine where endpoints on the Internet are located. The validated, user-supplied geographic information, which may be more specific than the derived geographic data, may then be used to provide more granular and accurate geo-targeting, all the while maintaining the privacy of the individual users.

User-supplied geographic info. Aha.

First claim:

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computer over a network, a truncated internet protocol (IP) address associated with a user device related to a specific user;

receiving, by the computer, user-supplied geographic information associated with the truncated IP address, the user-supplied geographic information not being linked to the specific user;

retrieving, by the computer from a database, geographic data derived from one or more complete IP addresses corresponding to the truncated IP address;

validating, by the computer, the user-supplied geographic information based at least in part on the geographic data, the validating comprising determining if the user-supplied geographic information is the same or equivalent to the derived geographic data associated with at least one of the one or more complete IP addresses corresponding to the truncated IP address, wherein in response to the user-supplied geographic information being validated, the user-supplied geographic information permits providing geo-targeted information.

I may not be perfect at reading patent legalize, but this "Invention" does not make any sense to me. So someone is providing his geo location, to then receive his geo location? Yay.

I've been using geo location for over 25 years now. And I have never heard about your company. And pretty much everybody uses Maxmind for 22 years now. Because they have an actual product, a website, pricing, and a free offering that's deployed on hundreds of thousands of servers.

Your company website on the other hand makes me want to puke. No way to actually see any IP Geolocation services. No products, no pricing. Just BLABLABLA WHY WE ARE SO GREAT.

So, guess what: No, nobody stole your idea. Nobody every heard about you or your idea, and nobody cared.

Maybe instead of posting this here actually invent something that is of use, and then come back here?

Yes, these have been rude words. But did you REALLY come here to get praise on this whiny narcissistic blog post of yours? Next time, please have this discussion in front of your bathroom mirror instead.

[sanjayparekh]

Maybe it wasn't clear, but I left my operating role at the company in 2005 and we exited the company (it was acquired) in 2007. I don't think I ever said anyone stole my idea - because they never did. Others were in the same space (Maxmind included) but came up way after us - and we never pursued anyone in court for patent infringement. Why? Because we always wanted to win in the marketplace and not in the courtroom.

Also, you probably don't know what data goes into Maxmind but that's okay. It doesn't matter to me since I exited a long time ago and have no dog in the fight anymore. But just because you don't know Digital Envoy doesn't mean you aren't using (and paying for) their data. ;-)

[Fischgericht]

I am very sure I am not paying for that data, and no-one else is.

The patent is absolutely trivial and would be thrown out in 5 minutes on the first objection. It does not even specify an implementation. Yes, patent language makes it sound important, but basically your "invention" can be summarized in one sentence. That's not an invention.

It's all bullshit. The company website now reads "50 patents on this!". It's a single patent, and yes, in the EU every copy of a patent is registered for each country and therefore you get 50 patent numbers.

Sorry to hurt your feelings, but as you are still insisting to be an inventor. You are not. You may be a great marketer if someone really paid you for this, but that's all.

(I also have "50" patents. But I would not brag about it, and my invention at least consists of a complex idea and 15 pages describing the implementation.)

And finally: The idea is illegal in the EU, where an IP is regarded as personal data, and you would need a written approval by every single user. And I have seen GDPR cookie popups, but never a sanjay popup.

Please just stop trying to impress tech people with a trivial sales person idea. You are abusing the patent system as a troll, and exactly this makes everyone in the industry hate it.

[sanjayparekh]

New goal: A "Sanjay popup". Hahaha.