A BlackBerry Storm with a Poynt app on display.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Mobile search services company Poynt Corp. has been awarded a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for technology that delivers location-based offers and coupons to smartphones.
The patent, originally claimed in 2000, is based on GPS location and users' profiles, Poynt said Wednesday.
"The services surrounding this patent have been, and will continue to be a key revenue driver for the company," CEO Andrew Osis said in a news release.
"With more and more mobile consumers turning to their smartphones for timely information based on where they are and what they are searching for at that moment in time, we expect Poynt will have a rapidly growing audience of new and existing users that will benefit from location-specific advertising and coupons."
Poynt Corp. makes a local search application that has 4.8 million users in eight countries on all major smartphone platforms.
Poynt said the patent was issued by the U.S. patent office on Tuesday.
The company also recently announced that its mobile search service for smartphones will have access to 1.5 million business listings from the Yellow Pages Group under a five-year agreement.