Google Tries To Patent Least Cost Routing?

from the er...-that's-old dept

First off, we should point out that there's a tendency in the press to discover a patent app (or even a granted patent) from a company and immediately write up an article claiming that the company is planning to implement what's in said patent -- as if the patent gives a glimpse into that company's future plans. The truth is that plenty of companies patent stuff that never amount to anything. So, reading the tea leaves via patent application is unlikely to be very accurate. So, it's difficult to put much weight into the claims from Wired that Google is planning to "kill off cellphone contracts" based on a recently revealed patent application on a flexible communications system, that would effectively bid out to various telco providers for the best possible rate before initiating a connection.

The real question shouldn't be about whether or not this will kill off mobile contracts, but why anyone should think this is patentable material. Least cost routing techniques have been around for ages, and you could buy a fax machine that would do it automatically for you years ago (I think I bought mine at least five years ago). It's hard to see what's all that different here, other than that it would be for data instead of voice or fax (which are really data in their own way) and that it could include mobile lines or alternative broadband options like WiFi. But that hardly seems worthy of a patent. Even odder? Google was sued about three years ago for apparently infringing on a least cost routing patent held by RTI, a patent holding company that recently had its tactics exposed.

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