I am not a lawyer. Just raising the question of patentability for the sake of discussion.

NeoMedia’s rich patent portfolio was developed by former Symbol VP of 2D Systems, Rob Durst, and former Symbol Principle Engineer Kevin Hunter. Kevin is the holder or co-holder of over 45 US and International patents, and Rob is the named inventor on 28 US patents including their international counterparts with additional US and foreign patents pending.

NeoMedia’s patents were first licensed by Digital Convergence for $100M in 2000 to facilitate the launch of the :CueCat.

In 2001, NeoMedia Technologies formed a strategic alliance with Symbol, now owned by Motorola, and signed a worldwide licensing agreement under NeoMedia’s intellectual property. Symbol would later offer to buy NeoMedia’s valuable patent portfolio in 2002 for $150M. The offer was declined however in favor of further developing the IP and growing the patent portfolio as a core component of NeoMedia’s long-term growth and market strategy.

In 2005, Virgin Entertainment and NeoMedia Technologies entered into an extended licensing agreement, which saw Virgin license NeoMedia’s patents through 2016.

NeoMedia brought suit against Scanbuy for patent infringement. Litigation has been ongoing.

In an effort to educate the public and raise the question of patentability, NeoMedia has multiple patents that cover scanning UPC codes with a camera enabled mobile device to connect to the Internet, comparison shop, and/or retrieve online content.

http://www.neom.com/13.html