First patent related to system for generating geo domain names is granted.
Back in 2009 GoDaddy released a geo domain tool that allowed you to find domain names specific to a location, e.g. AustinAllergists.com.
Last year I reported that GoDaddy filed three patent applications related to the tool.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has now granted a patent to GoDaddy covering the technology.
U.S. patent 8,489,746 is titled “Systems for suggesting domain names from a geographic location data”. It was originally filed as “Suggesting Domain Names from a GPS Location”.
You can view the patent here (pdf).
Inventors listed on the patent include Adam Dicker, owner of DNForum and a former GoDaddy employee, Paul Nicks, current Director of Product Development for GoDaddy, and Robert Bacus.
Of the other two patents filed in conjunction with this one, one is facing a final rejection notice and the other is still pending.
The Geo Domain tool is still online at geo.godaddy.com.
pnicksPaul Nicks says
Robert Bacus being the lead developer that put together what I think is still a very cool (if also very niche) tool.
Andrew Allemann says
I couldn’t find any info about Robert online. Thanks for filling in that detail.
James says
Well I just tried the tool for my own home town Montgomery (also the name of many geo localities across the USA) and nothing came up at all. I know that there are tons of domains for sale with the keyword “Montgomery” in it, so I am not impressed. Maybe I did something wrong, but if so, then it’s not very intuitive. Maybe it should be described in the patent application as “Systems for NOT suggesting domain names from a geographic location data.” But thanks as always for finding these stories Andrew, I knew nothing of this tool prior to your post.