Carrier IQ downplays 2010 patent request

A Carrier IQ executive downplayed the significance of the company's effort to patent a technology it said can help wireless carriers undertake "advertising audience segmentation analysis and content copyright analytics."

The company applied for a patent for the so-called Service Intelligence Module Program Product in March, 2010. The application says that the technology can, among other things, combine and analyze "service intelligence modules related to games, financial transactions, and medical diagnostics." The patent application asserts that the technology would let carriers "configure a processor to read content selection, read location data, read application activity, and determine presentation/deselection of advertising messages." It also claims that the product could be used to "group identifiers of mobile device users who have a higher probability of occupying a certain geographical area," as well as provide carriers with a "means for tracing copyright ownership of content displayed on the device." Carrier IQ marketing vice president Andrew Coward downplayed the claims in the patent application and emphatically contended that none of the company's current products offer the capabilities described. The Service Intelligence Module Program Product would offer much broader capabilities than Carrier IQ products offer today, he said.