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Facebook Patents Location Social Networking

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the wish-i-thought-of-locations dept.

bizwriter writes "Facebook just received a patent with broad claims that would seem to cover much of what Google (GOOG) Latitude, Foursquare, Gowalla, and others try to do in letting users share their locations with others. Patent number 7,809,805, called 'Systems and methods for automatically locating web-based social network members,' covers people manually entering a status, sending that and their location from a wireless device, and sharing both the status and location with others. Facebook's corporate value just took a big jump — and a number of other companies might have to either challenge the patent's validity or consider licensing deals."

7 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Predicted future news: by Even+on+Slashdot+FOE · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Companies patent widely implemented ideas and sue everyone. Oh wait, that's not new.

  2. The purpose of the patent system by ZombieBraintrust · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well the current purpose of the patent system is to provide work and revenue for lawyers. Its a way for them to attach themselves like parasites to the software buisness.

    1. Re:The purpose of the patent system by rhsanborn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A culture supported by lawyer politicians or the lawyer judiciary?

  3. A Better Idea by Nerdfest · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Perhaps instead of suing each other and licencing everything they could all get together and help get rid of software patents. Just imagine the money they could save on lawyers, in both applying for the patents, and defending against them.

  4. Marco! by phrostie · · Score: 3, Funny

    Polo!

    *Cease and disist letter arrives in mail

  5. Prior Art? APRS by Bill_the_Engineer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As an old amateur radio operator I must ask. How is location based social networking different than APRS that's been in use for over a decade?

    Operators with an attached GPS had their location updated automatically, Operators without a GPS entered their location manually, and the location was passed with each message packet. There were web pages that allowed people not currently on-the-air to monitor the communications via http.

    --
    These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
  6. Re:/. fails again by Theaetetus · · Score: 3, Informative

    Problem is my old website had the capability to do ALL of this before it went under. Our newer reincarnation does not have this built in, but I still have the full database from my old website from 5 years ago. Would this count as prior art against the patent?

    Prove it. You can send prior art to the USPTO to consider.