"Among a bevy of patents awarded to Apple this week was one that would enable or disable certain features of a phone depending on its location. It could be useful, but it also raises serious questions about who really owns your device." http://j.mp/PZNegI (NBC via NNSquad) A lot of ideas are patented but never used. Anyway, without reading the patent in detail, I'd note there are a variety of apps (that probably postdate the patent application) that do this already. One problem with any attempt to enforce such a regime is that you need everyone to have phones carrying the capability, and you have to be ready for the litigation exposure if (for example) an important call or message is blocked by such a system. It doesn't take much imagination to think of a bunch of other exposure examples as well. ------------------------------