"Protecting our ideas is key to our success.
We spend a lot of time thinking, and thanks to the USPTO
and our attorneys, we don't have to worry about someone
using them to compete against us."
Adam Edwards
Patrick Oborn
Founders of Telarus
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Geoquote Technology Patent Information
Protecting Our Biggest Asset: Our Ideas
We live in a world full of "copy cats" and "me toos". The internet has only
fostered this phenomenon, so protecting great ideas from simply being copied
is a very high priority to any inventor or original thinker.
In 2002, Adam Edwards and Patrick Oborn had the idea to create a real-time
quoting engine that could produce T1/DS3/ethernet pricing automatically, without
the need for human intervention. When Aaron Jay Lieberman and Patrick Oborn
finished the first GeoQuote prototype in March 2003, the first thing Telarus
did was to file for a patent. Although the legal costs associated with the
patent application were 45% of the operating budget in 2003, and 25% of the
budget in 2004, the benefits surely outweigh the costs.
Our assumption that we would be copied came true in 2005. Various businesses
have seen our concept and attempted to copy it, down to the very interface
itself. In the coming years we plan to aggressively protect our ideas through
all legal channels we have available.
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| A screenshot of the output generated by Geoquote. In
our patent application we filed to protect both the technology and the interface
from copy cats. |
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Below we have compiled all of the information relevant to our patent.
| Title: |
System and method to determine and deliver quotes for distance-sensitive communication links from multiple service providers |
| Inventors: |
Patrick Oborn & Aaron Jay Lieberman |
| USPTO Number: |
20050190901 |
| Patent Attorney: |
Cooley Godward Kronish LLP
Christopher Hutter
11951 Freedom Drive, Suite 1700
One Freedome Square - Reston Town Center
Reston, VA 20190-5061 |
| Abstract: |
To facilitate real-time pricing, an embodiment of the invention retrieves multiple quotes
from multiple databases associated with multiple service providers. Information regarding
a customer's location, and the locations of multiple service providers are used to determine
the cost of services associated with each of the multiple service providers in real-time. The
retrieved quotes are compared, and quotes below a pre-determined price threshold are provided
to a user in real-time (e.g., via the Internet). The user can select a desired quote from the
quotes provided, and purchase or request more information regarding the desired quote online.
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| Priority: |
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/517,916, filed on Nov. 7, 2003.
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| Field of the Invention: |
The invention relates generally to providing quotes for communications services.
More specifically, the invention relates to providing quotes for distance-sensitive
communication links from multiple service providers.
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Other Related Topics
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