IMO: Potentially getting a piece of one app is great but why not potentially get a piece of ALL APPS in every platform, every device and every carrier...
App licenser wins patent approval after eight years
Oct 29, 2010 (Tulsa World - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Jim McGill, chairman of mobile application developer Macrosolve, waited eight years for his company's patent to be approved.
But given the potential implications of patent number 7,822,816, he said it was worth the wait.
"This is my first company I've started that could turn into a billion-dollar business," he said.
According to the summary of the patent, Macrosolve now has the rights to the process by which a company or individual creates an app, sends it to be downloaded to mobile devices, collects information from users and sends it back to a central database.
In other words, McGill said it covers every existing mobile app that sends data from the app user back to the makers or administrators of the app.
That potentially covers hundreds of thousands of apps already installed on smart phones across the globe and perhaps millions more that have yet to be written, said Clint Parr, CEO of the company.
"To be honest, we have no idea how many apps this will cover," he said.
But Macrosolve does plan to reach out to as many as they can find and ask for a licensing fee, which could become a huge revenue source for the Tulsa company. Parr said the licensing process could greatly expand the company's employee count, currently at 17.
McGill said the app was born out of a project for British Aerospace in the late '90s to create a portable pilot log application on Handspring PDA devices. Though half a million dollars was sunk into the project, the particular Handspring device was discontinued, making the code obsolete. British Aerospace canceled the project.
The program's author and Macrosolve's founder, David Payne, decided to turn the idea behind the scuttled project into a program to gather information on mobile devices that could be easily adapted for use on a variety of platforms.
"He envisioned apps when none of the companies had the idea," McGill said.
Payne's program eventually became ReForm XT, Macrosolve's key data-gathering product. Payne left Macrosolve in August 2003.
McGill said he filed the patent in 2002, though a flood of mobile device patents and a 2007 Supreme Court ruling making "obvious" patents harder to defend slowed the process.
The patent was finally granted Tuesday. McGill said an advantage of the longer process is that the patent was even more thoroughly vetted.
Though technology has taken great leaps in the eight years after the patent was originally filed, McGill said the patent was written broadly enough to cover current technology.
"A properly drafted patent is an ageless thing," he said. "If you write a patent in the wording of that day's tech, you'll hang yourself." In part, the patent states: "In its broadest sense, the present invention is a method designed to accomplish the following: 1) Allow any computer(s) (desktops, laptops, handhelds, portables, etc.) to be used to capture information; 2) Transfer the information to a data center (via file transfer methods such as a network, to include, but not necessarily, Internet based) in a form that the data center can recognize; 3) Allow another computer(s) to access the information and download it from the data center in a format that can be readily used regardless of the format in which the original information was gathered." Parr said Macrosolve doesn't intend to sue companies using their patent or deprive people from using it. Instead, the goal is to license the patent to anyone who wants to use it.
"We can approach very large companies and empower them with the technology and the patent to allow them to publish apps and reach a large audience," he said.
Parr said Macrosolve is already in talks with companies such as Apple Inc., Google, Research in Motion Limited, makers of the BlackBerry smart phone, and Getjar, an independent smart phone app store, for licensing.
Additionally, McGill said he wants individuals to be able to license the technology, since ReForm is built to allow people with little computer skill to create apps that allow people to gather data remotely and send them to a central location.
"We could have people come to our site, use their credit card and license the capabilities to make their own apps," he said.
ReForm XT is used by companies large and small for on-the-job data gathering, including the Golf Channel, which uses it to coordinate camera shots during golf tournaments, and a number of local restaurants and school systems.
Macrosolve plans to use the anticipated revenue from licensing to beef up ReForm XT and make it more readily available for companies and individual computer users.
Robert Evatt 581-8447 robert.evatt@tulsaworld.com To see more of the Tulsa World, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tulsaworld.com. Copyright (c) 2010, Tulsa World, Okla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail services@mctinfoservices.com, or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544).
Oct 29, 2010 (Tulsa World - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Jim McGill, chairman of mobile application developer Macrosolve, waited eight years for his company's patent to be approved.
But given the potential implications of patent number 7,822,816, he said it was worth the wait.
"This is my first company I've started that could turn into a billion-dollar business," he said.
According to the summary of the patent, Macrosolve now has the rights to the process by which a company or individual creates an app, sends it to be downloaded to mobile devices, collects information from users and sends it back to a central database.
In other words, McGill said it covers every existing mobile app that sends data from the app user back to the makers or administrators of the app.
That potentially covers hundreds of thousands of apps already installed on smart phones across the globe and perhaps millions more that have yet to be written, said Clint Parr, CEO of the company.
"To be honest, we have no idea how many apps this will cover," he said.
But Macrosolve does plan to reach out to as many as they can find and ask for a licensing fee, which could become a huge revenue source for the Tulsa company. Parr said the licensing process could greatly expand the company's employee count, currently at 17.
McGill said the app was born out of a project for British Aerospace in the late '90s to create a portable pilot log application on Handspring PDA devices. Though half a million dollars was sunk into the project, the particular Handspring device was discontinued, making the code obsolete. British Aerospace canceled the project.
The program's author and Macrosolve's founder, David Payne, decided to turn the idea behind the scuttled project into a program to gather information on mobile devices that could be easily adapted for use on a variety of platforms.
"He envisioned apps when none of the companies had the idea," McGill said.
Payne's program eventually became ReForm XT, Macrosolve's key data-gathering product. Payne left Macrosolve in August 2003.
McGill said he filed the patent in 2002, though a flood of mobile device patents and a 2007 Supreme Court ruling making "obvious" patents harder to defend slowed the process.
The patent was finally granted Tuesday. McGill said an advantage of the longer process is that the patent was even more thoroughly vetted.
Though technology has taken great leaps in the eight years after the patent was originally filed, McGill said the patent was written broadly enough to cover current technology.
"A properly drafted patent is an ageless thing," he said. "If you write a patent in the wording of that day's tech, you'll hang yourself." In part, the patent states: "In its broadest sense, the present invention is a method designed to accomplish the following: 1) Allow any computer(s) (desktops, laptops, handhelds, portables, etc.) to be used to capture information; 2) Transfer the information to a data center (via file transfer methods such as a network, to include, but not necessarily, Internet based) in a form that the data center can recognize; 3) Allow another computer(s) to access the information and download it from the data center in a format that can be readily used regardless of the format in which the original information was gathered." Parr said Macrosolve doesn't intend to sue companies using their patent or deprive people from using it. Instead, the goal is to license the patent to anyone who wants to use it.
"We can approach very large companies and empower them with the technology and the patent to allow them to publish apps and reach a large audience," he said.
Parr said Macrosolve is already in talks with companies such as Apple Inc., Google, Research in Motion Limited, makers of the BlackBerry smart phone, and Getjar, an independent smart phone app store, for licensing.
Additionally, McGill said he wants individuals to be able to license the technology, since ReForm is built to allow people with little computer skill to create apps that allow people to gather data remotely and send them to a central location.
"We could have people come to our site, use their credit card and license the capabilities to make their own apps," he said.
ReForm XT is used by companies large and small for on-the-job data gathering, including the Golf Channel, which uses it to coordinate camera shots during golf tournaments, and a number of local restaurants and school systems.
Macrosolve plans to use the anticipated revenue from licensing to beef up ReForm XT and make it more readily available for companies and individual computer users.
Robert Evatt 581-8447 robert.evatt@tulsaworld.com To see more of the Tulsa World, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tulsaworld.com. Copyright (c) 2010, Tulsa World, Okla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail services@mctinfoservices.com, or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544).
Oct 29, 2010 (Tulsa World - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Jim McGill, chairman of mobile application developer Macrosolve, waited eight years for his company's patent to be approved.
But given the potential implications of patent number 7,822,816, he said it was worth the wait.
"This is my first company I've started that could turn into a billion-dollar business," he said.
According to the summary of the patent, Macrosolve now has the rights to the process by which a company or individual creates an app, sends it to be downloaded to mobile devices, collects information from users and sends it back to a central database.
In other words, McGill said it covers every existing mobile app that sends data from the app user back to the makers or administrators of the app.
That potentially covers hundreds of thousands of apps already installed on smart phones across the globe and perhaps millions more that have yet to be written, said Clint Parr, CEO of the company.
"To be honest, we have no idea how many apps this will cover," he said.
But Macrosolve does plan to reach out to as many as they can find and ask for a licensing fee, which could become a huge revenue source for the Tulsa company. Parr said the licensing process could greatly expand the company's employee count, currently at 17.
McGill said the app was born out of a project for British Aerospace in the late '90s to create a portable pilot log application on Handspring PDA devices. Though half a million dollars was sunk into the project, the particular Handspring device was discontinued, making the code obsolete. British Aerospace canceled the project.
The program's author and Macrosolve's founder, David Payne, decided to turn the idea behind the scuttled project into a program to gather information on mobile devices that could be easily adapted for use on a variety of platforms.
"He envisioned apps when none of the companies had the idea," McGill said.
Payne's program eventually became ReForm XT, Macrosolve's key data-gathering product. Payne left Macrosolve in August 2003.
McGill said he filed the patent in 2002, though a flood of mobile device patents and a 2007 Supreme Court ruling making "obvious" patents harder to defend slowed the process.
The patent was finally granted Tuesday. McGill said an advantage of the longer process is that the patent was even more thoroughly vetted.
Though technology has taken great leaps in the eight years after the patent was originally filed, McGill said the patent was written broadly enough to cover current technology.
"A properly drafted patent is an ageless thing," he said. "If you write a patent in the wording of that day's tech, you'll hang yourself." In part, the patent states: "In its broadest sense, the present invention is a method designed to accomplish the following: 1) Allow any computer(s) (desktops, laptops, handhelds, portables, etc.) to be used to capture information; 2) Transfer the information to a data center (via file transfer methods such as a network, to include, but not necessarily, Internet based) in a form that the data center can recognize; 3) Allow another computer(s) to access the information and download it from the data center in a format that can be readily used regardless of the format in which the original information was gathered." Parr said Macrosolve doesn't intend to sue companies using their patent or deprive people from using it. Instead, the goal is to license the patent to anyone who wants to use it.
"We can approach very large companies and empower them with the technology and the patent to allow them to publish apps and reach a large audience," he said.
Parr said Macrosolve is already in talks with companies such as Apple Inc., Google, Research in Motion Limited, makers of the BlackBerry smart phone, and Getjar, an independent smart phone app store, for licensing.
Additionally, McGill said he wants individuals to be able to license the technology, since ReForm is built to allow people with little computer skill to create apps that allow people to gather data remotely and send them to a central location.
"We could have people come to our site, use their credit card and license the capabilities to make their own apps," he said.
ReForm XT is used by companies large and small for on-the-job data gathering, including the Golf Channel, which uses it to coordinate camera shots during golf tournaments, and a number of local restaurants and school systems.
Macrosolve plans to use the anticipated revenue from licensing to beef up ReForm XT and make it more readily available for companies and individual computer users.
Robert Evatt 581-8447 robert.evatt@tulsaworld.com To see more of the Tulsa World, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tulsaworld.com. Copyright (c) 2010, Tulsa World, Okla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail services@mctinfoservices.com, or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544).
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