Friendster Granted Patent on Sharing Relationship Information Stored in a Social Network Database with Third Party Databases
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – October 6, 2009 — Friendster, Inc., a top global web site based on traffic, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded the social networking pioneer a new U.S. Patent, titled “Method for Sharing Relationship Information Stored in a Social Network Database with Third Party Databases” (U.S. Patent No. 7,478,078). Friendster has been granted five patents since July 2006, validating the company’s early and continual innovation in online social networking.
Friendster’s latest patent describes a technology where social network information maintained in one database can be shared with a second database. It also describes how the operators of the second database can use the social network information to better manage services provided to their customers and target particular information to their customers.
Specifically, the patent describes the technology as a request made to an application server of a first database by an application server of a second database, for social network information relevant to a set of individuals. The request may include identifying information of each individual in the set. The first database is then searched for matches with the identifying information in the request. If matches are found, the social network information relevant to those individuals for whom matches are found is shared with the second database.
“Friendster has continued to build and own a significant patent portfolio, since launching in 2002 as the first online social network,” said Richard Kimber, chief executive officer at Friendster. “Our five patents address many key components of social networking, including establishing connections, sharing and distributing content, managing connections over time, assessing compatibility between users, and sharing information with third party databases. We anticipate receiving more patents in the near future.”
Friendster was granted four social networking patents between 2006 and 2009:
- In July 2006, Friendster was awarded its first U.S. patent describing how people are connected in the context of an online social network, titled “A System, Method and Apparatus for Connecting Users in an Online Computer System Based on Their Relationships within Social Networks” (U.S. Patent No. 7,069,308).
- Friendster was granted a second U.S. patent in October 2006, which discloses the process of enriching other users’ profiles with text, video, pictures and additional content, titled “Method of Inducing Content Uploads in a Social Network” (U.S. Patent No. 7,117,254).
- In March 2007, Friendster added another patent to its portfolio, titled “System and Method for Managing Connections in an Online Social Network” (U.S. Patent No. 7,188,153), which describes a technology that manages connections in a social network and allows members of the social network to add friends, personalize their network through arranging, ordering and classifying their connections, and search and browse profiles of other members of the social network.
- In December 2008, Friendster was granted its fourth patent, titled “Compatibility Scoring of Users in a Social Network” (U.S. Patent No. 7,451,161), which discloses a unique methodology used to calculate compatibility based on expressed interests between users of a social network. This includes scoring the compatibility between two members of a social network based on their interests and scoring the correlation between two interests for a given member of a social network.
“Since social networks are platforms on which real businesses are built, and over three quarters of a billion people online today use social networks to share, communicate and connect with friends and family, being granted this fifth patent documents Friendster’s position as an innovator and leader,” said Kimber.
Note from blogger: As mentioned in my CNET Asia blog before, these patent might be very useful for a large player like Google, or even Chinese player Tencent (who owns QQ) who can use these patents to create a potential trainwreck against players like Facebook and Myspace. I believe currently Friendster cannot unlock the value of these patents because one, it is costly and long drawn (even risky) to get an award against companies who infringe upon these patents. Secondly, many of the shareholders in Friendster are also shareholders in Facebook. So, it looks like the value of these patents will only truly be unlocked if someone who wants to mount a serious challenge to Facebook and have the big bucks (talking about tens to hundreds of millions) to spare. Who knows, maybe Facebook should buy over Friendster.
