A former engineering professor (i.e., not a planning professor) says he invented the transportation network company first, and that he has the patent to prove it.
"A 79-year-old Atlantan claims he out-whizzed the West Coast whiz kids by about a decade in developing the concepts Uber and Lyft are built on, and he’s suing the ride-hailing companies for patent infringement in federal court," according to an article by Christopher Quinn.
"Stephen Dickerson, a retired Georgia Tech engineering professor, developed in 1999 the idea of bringing cell phones, the global positioning system and digital payments together to get people around congested Atlanta, his civil suit says. His company, RideApp, filed the suit in the Northern District of Georgia last Friday against Uber and a subsidiary," adds Quinn.
"He filed a similar suit against Lyft and its subsidiaries last July. That suit is in the Northern District of California."
Quinn doesn't offer much insight into the likelihood of the patent winning in court, but Dickerson and his lawyers clearly believe they have a case. For the record, Dickerson serves on the Atlanta Transit Link board.
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