US 9942705

Here is a summary of U.S. Patent No. 9,942,705:

Title: Location sharing group for services provision

Assignee: X One Inc.

Inventor: Richard D. Haney

Filing Date: February 9, 2017

Issue Date: April 10, 2018

Abstract:
A group of mobile, GPS-enabled cellular phone users can form a group of buddies who can see the location of each other on a map on their phone's display. The group can be permanent or ad hoc. Any member of the group can select any other member and have the server computer a route from the selector's present location to the location of the selected member and to push down to the selector's phone turn-by-turn directions. The phone can be configured to periodically send its GPS location to a server, and the server can be configured to send the location of all the members of a group to each member's phone. A user can create a temporary “instant” buddy relationship with another person such as a tow truck driver so they can find each other. A user can create a breadcrumb trail of their movements and, if they do not check in periodically, have that trail sent to one or more other persons.

Plain-Language Overview of Independent Claims:

This patent has three independent claims:

• Claim 1: Describes a method for a server to manage a location-sharing group. The server receives a request from a first person's mobile device to form a temporary "instant buddy" group with a second person's mobile device. This request includes the second person's phone number and the duration of the group. The server then sends an invitation to the second person's device. If the second person accepts, the server creates the temporary group and receives location data from both devices. This location data is then sent to both devices, allowing them to see each other's location on a map. This temporary group automatically ends after the specified duration.
• Claim 10: Details a server that is configured to perform the method described in Claim 1. The server has a processor and memory with instructions to receive a request for an "instant buddy" relationship, send an invitation, and upon acceptance, create a temporary location-sharing group. The server then exchanges location data between the two devices for a limited time.
• Claim 16: This claim outlines a computer-readable medium (like a software program) that contains instructions for a server to carry out the method of creating and managing a temporary location-sharing group, as described in Claim 1. When executed, these instructions cause the server to receive the "instant buddy" request, send an invitation, and, upon acceptance, facilitate the sharing of location data between the two devices for a predetermined period.

Litigation:

A search of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) dockets for litigation involving US Patent 9,942,705 has been conducted. There is no public record of this patent being the subject of litigation before the CAFC as of today's date. However, this does not rule out the possibility of past, pending, or future litigation in other courts.