Digital Envoy has won a U.S. patent for a technology it describes as "non-invasively" targeting the physical location of Web surfers, which it says is essential for doing business in cyberspace. The company's recent announcement could also accelerate a battle over the technology with Google, with Digital Envoy vice president Rob Friedman vowing the company would enforce the patent vigorously.
"We feel that no other provider will be able to offer accurate geo-location solutions without infringing on our patent rights," Friedman said in a statement. "We plan to aggressively defend our patent in order to protect the techniques, methods, and applications of this technology that offer so much value to our partners and customers."
This technology is described as pinpointing the physical location of Web surfers right down to the city level, based on IP addresses. Google licensed the technology, which Digital Envoy calls IP Intelligence, but Digital Envoy sued accusing the search kings of violating the licensing deal by offering ads on third-party Websites.
"This patent acknowledges that Digital Envoy is the inventor of geo-location technology, and we are pleased to be officially recognized as pioneers in IP Intelligence," Digital Envoy chief strategy officer Sanjay Parekh said in a statement. The company also describes Parekh as a co-inventor of the IP Intelligence technology.
"Before Digital Envoy, attempts were made to geo-target Internet users by relying on things such as registry information, which is highly inaccurate," he continued. "I felt that the ability to non-invasively target Internet users was essential for conducting business on the Internet, which is how IP Intelligence came into being. I think the importance of this type of technology for a wide variety of Internet applications can be attested to by the number of 'me too' technologies that have sprung up since we first founded Digital Envoy in 1999."
