{
  "patent_number": "US 9154561",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Apps Automatically Connect Friends Based on Their Current Location",
  "original_title": "Methods and system for providing location-based communication services",
  "summary": "A system that automatically invites people to a group chat when they enter a specific geographic area defined by a friend's mobile device.",
  "what_it_does": "The patent describes a method for mobile devices to automatically trigger group chats based on physical proximity. A primary user defines a group of allowed contacts and a specific distance radius around their current location. When a second mobile device enters this defined geographic region, the system checks if that user is on the approved list. If they are, the system automatically sends a notification to join the group communication session and establishes the connection.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover location-based services that do not require membership in a pre-defined communication group.",
    "Does not cover systems that rely solely on proximity without a user-selected distance parameter.",
    "Does not cover public broadcasting of location data to users outside of a specified group."
  ],
  "filed": "2013-09-13",
  "granted": "2015-10-06",
  "expires": null,
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "AOL Inc",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/aol-inc",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Vincent Oh",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/vincent-oh"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 10,
  "tags": [
    "software",
    "telecommunications",
    "consumer_electronics"
  ],
  "abstract": "Systems and methods are provided for providing location-based communication services, such as location-based chat sessions and location based-data feeds. Access to a chat session or data feed may be provided to a user of a mobile device when the current location of the mobile device is determined to be within a predetermined geographic region. In one implementation, the chat session or data feed relates to content provided by members of a group or social network. In other implementations, the content related to chat session or data feed is provided by members of the general public.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/9154561/facebook-pages",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/9154561/facebook-pages/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US9154561",
  "relatedPatents": []
}