Microsoft and Google Together Sue GeoTag Inc Over Patent

Google and Microsoft have joined forces to take down a Texas company’s geotagging patent that they claim has been used in lawsuits against more than 300 entities, many of which are customers of the two companies. Microsoft and Google want to protect Google Maps and Bing Maps against this kind of activity.The complaint, filed in Delaware on March 1, 2011, asks for declaration of invalidity of the patent asserted, judgment that Google’s and Microsoft’s customers do not infringe any valid claim of the patent, and “a preliminary and permanent injunction precluding GeoTag (and affiliated persons and entities) from suing for infringement or otherwise asserting infringement of the (patent in question) against customers of (Microsoft’s and Google’s) Mapping Services for store locators or other locators on websites.”