In many respects, Friendster started all this social networking business. Others just got better at it. No matter, Friendster may actually have a "patent" secret weapon in its corner, writes
Business Week. On June 27 the company was issued a patent referring to a "system, method, and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within
social networks." That may sound pretty vague, but it certainly sounds similar to the underpinnings of the likes of MySpace and Facebook. The company filed for the patent in June 2003. It's unclear
now how Friendster plans to use it. President Kent Lindstrom says its in the process of figuring out whether it can now charge licensing fees. He said: "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.'" But Lindstrom says they're nice guys at Friendster who want to act on their new power without ruffling
too many feathers. What does that mean? Basically, the patent they have doesn't guarantee anything yet. He doesn't say, and the article is unclear, but a second patent is pending that would let
Friendster be less nice about commanding fees. It needs another component to be certain. As it stands, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman says the patent doesn't apply to them. MySpace said it isn't
prepared to comment. Social networking patents have been handed out before: Sixdegrees.com won a patent in 2001, but was forced to put it up for auction in 2003 after the company went bust. Tribe.net
founder Marc Pincus and LinkedIn's Hoffman later purchased it. Again it's unclear what connection this has to Friendster's new patent.
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