A Patent on Social Networking or Venture Capital Spam?
July 14th, 2006
Written By: Adam Sussman
The trend of the web is moving towards social networking with almost every major player now offering some sort of “social” experience for their userbase. I am amazed to have just read that Friendster has just been awarded a patent for “system, method, and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks.”
You may recall that Friendster was once “the place to socialize” before Myspace came along and now they have fallen wayside but Friendster’s Patent Possibilities in BusinessWeek writes
Friendster President Kent Lindstrom says the company is in the process of determining whether the site will be able to charge licensing fees. “Any kind of businessperson would say, ‘Hey, we’re going to prosecute this to the full extent we can and get every penny we can out of it,’ ” says Lindstrom. “But we do work in a community of businesses and don’t want to just cause trouble if there is no reason for it.”
This reminds me of the time Amazon got a patent for “One-Click” back in the day when ecommerce sites were already offering customers the ability to purchase products with “one click”. This is currently being re-examined.
Patents, Trademarks and copywriting are highly beneficial for society. They protect entrepreneurs, inventors, writers and artists and without it people would just be ripping each other off left right and center. I could even argue the fact that without the protection of the US Patent Trademark Office there would be no real motivation for people to invest in new ideas thus society would possibly not progress as rapidly as we do with its protection.
But Come On!
I find it ridiculous anyone would be granted this type of patent. Tagging users with keen interests is no different then what dating sites were doing in the late 90’s and how every ecommerce site groups like products together.
This really is a case of Venture Capital backers investing in startups and instructing them to SPAM the Patent Office with every possible patent in the hopes one of these babies would pop.
More info at Red Herring
