GPS Patents and Their Effects on Our Future and Rights

Gps Patenting

At first, individuals exploring business ideas that implemented GPS filed for technological patents that did not list GPS as the primary focus for the new technology. These patents typically fit into one of two categories: Class 342 and Class 701. Both classes contain projects of different scopes: “Class 342 is titled Communications [for] Directive Radio Wave Systems and Devices, and Class 701 is titled Data Processing [for] Vehicles, Navigation, and Relative Location” (Yu & Kehoe, 2003). Most patents filed for GPS technology will fall under the category of Class 701, because they focus on the most basic concepts of GPS: navigation in vehicles. Now, as GPS has become so prevalent in everyday use, GPS patents have been filed for almost anything, thus creating less distinction between these two GPS patent categories.