Smith Gambrell & Russell (SGR) attorneys Michael Makuch and  Ryan Varnum successfully defended the validity of a patent covering turn by turn navigation for our client, InfoGation LLC.

On September 11, 2017, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) declined to institute an Inter Partes Review (IPR) filed by Google.  The PTO agreed with SGR’s arguments that Google’s IPR Petition failed to present sufficient grounds for instituting a review.

The patent in question, U.S. 6,292,743, is being asserted by an SGR patent litigation team against handset makers HTC, ZTE, and Huawei in the Southern District of California, based on the defendant’s use of the Google Maps navigation application.  InfoGation was founded by Dr. Kent Pu, an early pioneer in personal navigation, and has supplied software for notable users like Hertz, supporting its “Never Lost” devices.