USPTO Lets Amazon Patent the "Social Networking System"

theodp writes "After shelling out a reported $90 million to buy PlanetAll in 1998, Amazon shuttered the site in 2000, explaining that 'it seemed really superfluous to have it running beside Friends and Favorites.' But years later in a 2008 patent filing, Amazon described the acquired PlanetAll technology to the USPTO in very Facebook-like terms. And on Tuesday, the USPTO issued US Patent No. 7,739,139 to Amazon for its invention, the Social Networking System, which Amazon describes thusly: '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 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.' So, should Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg worry about Amazon opening a can of patent whup-ass?"

Comments

Re:prior art

[Antony T Curtis]

My company in the late 80's had an online resume system that allowed people to post resumes anonymously, and hiring managers could be notified when their selection criteria was met by someone's posting.

We ran it on the cutting edge PC hardware of the era... It ran on a 10 MHz 80286 ELONEX PC, 640K RAM with a 20MB hard disk, 8 RS232 ports, connected to some 2400 baud modems.

Somewhere, I have kept the three 5 1/4" floppy disks which contain all the source code to the system.

Alas, it didn't take off because our customer base balked at the price of buying a modem.