Patent ID: 8285481

Claim:
A method for a navigation system for assigning a brand icon to a particular place, comprising the following steps of: specifying a particular place for a navigation system for creating a lookup table related to brand icons where a brand icon identifies a particular business located at the particular place; checking whether the specified particular place is associated with a brand icon; assigning the brand icon to the particular place when both are associated with one another, the step including a step of displaying a plurality of icon blocks each showing a generic icon or a brand icon so that a user can select one of the icons to be assigned to the particular place; storing data regarding the association between the particular place and the brand icon, thereby creating the lookup table in the navigation system; displaying a map image or a menu image on a display screen of the navigation system for selecting a place to visit or selecting a menu item; displaying the brand icon retrieved from the lookup table on the map or menu image when a location of the particular place comes within a range of the image that can be displayed on the display screen; and displaying a generic icon for each remaining location on the map or menu image; wherein the generic icon represents a generic category or type of business rather than a particular business and its location represented by the brand icon, and wherein the brand icon is a graphic representation that uniquely identifies a particular business that is indistinguishable by the generic icon and wherein the lookup table has a franchise/brand ID and an icon field that stores graphic representation associated with the franchise/brand ID.