Home listing Web sites over the past several years have sprouted to tremendous growth, allowing users to find homes using interactive maps and conduct searches by particular features.
We tend to thank the Web for making such services possible. But at least one inventor claims to have had the same idea years before anyone heard of the Web.
According to U.S. patent No. 5,032,989, filed in 1989 and granted in 1991, Windermere, Fla.-based systems engineer Mark Tornetta invented an interactive mapping system used to find homes for sale similar to the way a number of national Web services allow users to search for properties.
Now, Tornetta is suing two leaders among national home listing Web sites, Moore USA's Cyberhomes and Microsoft's HomeAdvisor , claiming both are infringing upon and deliberately ignoring his patented method for finding homes via computer.
While each declined to elaborate on the case, both Microsoft and Moore simply said they do not believe they are infringing on Tornetta's patent.
"We are operating under the assumption that we are on fair ground, and will continue to do so," John Mosey, CEO of Cyberhomes, said Monday.
Mosey said Moore had investigated the issue in the past but "felt secure" in its position. He added that the company's research center reviewed "umpteen patents" every year and is fairly knowledgeable about patent infringement cases.
Microsoft issued a similar comment.
"Our lawyers have reviewed the complaint and we do not believe we are infringing on a valid patent claim," Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla said.
The lawsuit , filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, asks for preliminary and permanent injunctions against both companies as well as monetary damages, which his lawyers say could equal millions of dollars in royalties.
The case may be heard in 120 days but Tornetta's hope is that both Microsoft and Moore will sign on as licensees of his patent.
Moore USA , which launched the Cyberhomes site in early 1996 and currently offers nearly 1 million homes for sale across the U.S., and Microsoft , which launched HomeAdvisor this past summer, are denying Tornetta's claims and say they plan to defend against the claims in court.
Tornetta, who attended his first Inman News Features Real Estate Connect conference this past weekend in San Francisco, said he developed his invention through a "passion for computer software" and a general knowledge of the real estate industry. He is related to the owners of Tornetta Realty Corp ., a 50-year-old real estate brokerage and construction company based in Morristown, Pa.
After witnessing the arcane methods of searching for real estate used by dial-up, text-based MLS systems, Tornetta saw that property searches with interactive maps would be a "natural" progression in the future. He said he built his invention using 5 1/4-inch floppy disks and one of the original IBM PCs.
"The tools were not available back then," Tornetta said, "so I really kind of did it for fun."
Tornetta filed a patent claim for his system, which was eventually granted in 1991. It includes diagrams, details about custom searches and other descriptions of his idea.
Unlike other claims for technology inventions, Tornetta's lead attorney, Lawrence Husick, said that Tornetta is not simply "throwing a patent at the wall and seeing if something sticks." The U.S. Patent Office grants patents only after careful examination, he said.
Tornetta has been in correspondence with Microsoft and Moore, as well as a number of other companies regarding his claim, Husick said.
Other companies -- Husick would not name or number them -- have been cooperative, in some cases changing the way their sites work or choosing to negotiate for licensing rights under the patent, he said. Microsoft and Moore, however, "chose not to advance the discussions."
Technology patents are generally problematic because many software inventors, believing that software is not patentable, never bothered with the process. As a result, patent examiners do not have many previously-patented software programs to compare new inventions with.
Groups such as the Software Patent Institute and the U.S. Patent and Trade Office are trying to make more "prior art," or existing software programs, available to patent examiners. Similar issues also prompted the USPTO to issue new guidelines for the examination of computer-related inventions in 1996.
According to the USPTO Web site, there are dozens of patents in existence that involve searching databases through some kind of graphical interface. Tornetta's patent is cited on a number of them, including the patent owned by Richard Janssen, president of Real Select Inc., which operates Realtor.com .
According to USPTO records, Tornetta claims in his patent "A method using a computer for locating available real estate properties comprising the steps of:
The patent also claims the method for printing reports, providing additional property features, the use of a "pointing device" -- i.e., a computer mouse -- and selecting properties by certain features. The claims apply to a wide range of property types, including residential, commercial, rental and leased properties.
Tornetta, meanwhile, is ready to talk to anyone who wants to license his technology. His purpose at Connect 98 was specifically to drum up sales.
"Millions of people deserve to find a new home in the easiest and best manner possible," Tornetta said. "The concepts protected in my patents allow them to do precisely that."