Apparently, to the folks at the PTO, the idea of playing an ad while giving directory assistance information over the telephone is not obvious.

And 1-800-FREE-411, faced with competition from Microsoft's Tellme, Google, and others, has decided to follow a patent troll business model rather than an innovation model.

"We're not looking to be the only company that does [free 411], but if others want to do similar things and want to use the technology we came up with, they should pay a fair price," [Jingle Networks founder Scott] Kliger says.

Jingle's patent, which it bought from inventor Scott Wolmuth, is for a system that plays an ad related to the listing a caller requests on a free 411 service. So, according to Kliger, a rival service that examines a caller's request for, say, Domino's Pizza in Atlanta, identifies the category (pizza) and then plays an ad for Pizza Hut likely would infringe on the Jingle patent.

The most ironic part? While Kliger refers to "the technology we came up with," he's not the one who actually "invented" the idea according to the PTO - he just bought the patent from Wolmuth, who appears to be more of a telephone cybersquatter than an inventor.