Bone-headed patent lawsuit number 573482: a company called WebMap Technologies is suing a host of technology companies over an online map patent that was issued over 5 years ago, reports Law360 (requires registration).

The patent (ID US6772142) is titled "Method and apparatus for collecting and expressing geographically-referenced data" and covers a web-based implemented system in which observers may pinpoint locations on a scalable map in order to fix data by latitude and longitude and to collect data describing that location.