16-05
June 22, 2007 - 11:53 h
TomTom is now the proud owner of several new patents relating to navigational solutions. The Dutch company has bought over one hundred worldwide patents from Horizon Navigation. A number of these patents are important ones, necessary for the future development of PND units.Amongst other things, these patents determine how instructions are spoken, how POI's are shown on the map, how POI's can contain detailed data, like the phone number of the POI, and the way to determine the position of the GPS device as accurately as possible.
Covered
The patents, which are now owned by TomTom, contain elements of navigational systems which they have already used for years in the current range of PND's. With the purchase of these Horizon patents, TomTom made sure that there would be no more patent-infringement claims in the future, like the TomTom experienced last year when Garmin sued TomTom for this very reason. Last year TomTom bought three patents from Horizon, to assist in their defence of Garmin's claims.Harold Goddijn, TomTom's CEO, is very pleased with the purchase: "We are delighted to acquire these important patents, many of which were invented in the early years of GPS. A lot of these patents still date from the early days of GPS. Horizon's patents will add to our own rapidly growing patent portfolio." No details were disclosed about the financial transaction.
Apart from the purchase of Horizon patents, the agreement also means that this company will now provide R&D support and assistance to the TomTom development teams in the United States. Horizon will also keep developing products of their own.
Horizon Navigation
The American company Horizon Navigation was founded in 1989, and almost immediately they started the development of their NavMate software. At first, the company only targeted the North-American market, but since 1997 they have widened their horizons and NavMate has been sold in Europe. This software is suited to PDA's, PND's, mobile phones and built-in car systems. Some of Horizon's important clients are Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, Nissan & Porsche.Since 2004, Horizon have also made a strategic partnership with another Dutch company that is no stranger to TomTom: Horizon ships their own systems, with digital mapping material by Tele Atlas, to the US and Canadian regions.
Laura White, CEO of Horizon, also released a positive statement after the agreement with TomTom: "We are looking forward to contributing our navigation experience to assist TomTom, as well as continuing to provide creative solutions to our expanding customer base."
