14 DAY TRIAL // There has been a string of funny, dubious or just plain mind-boggling patent grants and, unfortunately, there’s no sign of the trend stopping anytime soon. Amazon has just been granted a patent for a “Social Networking System.” And it’s exactly what it sounds like, the description of the patent could very well be the Wikipedia entry for any social network out there including Facebook, obviously. The broad language of the grant makes plenty of sites a potential target, but the best part is that Amazon is not the only company to hold a patent for social networking.
“A networked computer system provides various services for assisting users in locating, and establishing contact relationships with other users. For example, in one embodiment, users can identify other users based on their affiliations with particular schools or other organizations,” the abstract of the patent reads.
“The system also provides a mechanism for a user to selectively establish contact relationships or connections with other users, and to grant permissions for such other users to view personal information of the user. The system may also include features for enabling users to identify contacts of their respective contacts. In addition, the system may automatically notify users of personal information updates made by their respective contacts,” it continues.
The story of how Amazon came to be granted the patent goes like this. In 1998, Amazon bought PlanetAll, a site that looks like the archetypal social network. Amazon apparently saw some potential in the site, yet, only two years later, closed it down completely.
Since then, social networking sites have become increasingly popular, prompting Amazon to file for a patent for a “social networking system” in 2008, at a time when Facebook was already flying high, though there was still competition on the market. The US Patent and Trademark Office has now granted Amazon that patent.
What’s interesting is that Friendster, the site that sparked this wave of social networking services, also holds several patents in the field including one for “social networking.” And it’s not the only one, various companies hold patents related to social networking including Facebook, which patented the News Feed, again with a fairly broad and vague description. What Amazon will do with the patent is anyone’s guess, but it’s hard to see how this helps ‘innovation’ in any way, as patents are intended to do.