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Facebook Locks Down Social Gift Giving Patent

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the no-presents-for-you dept.

bizwriter writes "Facebook has been on a roll of late, nailing a number of patent grants that will help it retain dominance in social networking by creating barriers for competitors. Yesterday came patent number 7,970,657, 'Giving gifts and displaying assets in a social network environment'. Although it doesn't directly prevent other social networks from enabling gift giving among users, a clever legal and technical maneuver makes it far more difficult."

29 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What's the point of patenting things anymore if the "design", "process" or "technology" is so trivial as this? I may as well go ahead with my patent for "any method of expulsion of bodily fluids" - as dumb as the USPTO is, they'll probably grant it. Prior art be damned.

    1. Re:WTF? by metacell · · Score: 2

      I thought UPSTO was trying to clean its image by not granting anymore stupid patents this year?

      Unfortunately, someone already had a patent on "A method for screening and selectively approving patent applications through a process of obviousness estimation".

  2. europe by chris.alex.thomas · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In europe I doubt many people will care much, I'll write my software without fear of software patents and just scrub off the USA from my list of places to visit, then when the legal letter arrives with "you must stop using our " I'll throw it in the bin and carry on with my life. If you live in a truely free country, you don't tend to care what other legal systems say, what matters, is what your country says... I love europe sometimes, although I hope that they don't change the whole "patents are not valid in europe" thingy.....and lets hope I don't bump into any "rendition crews" :)

  3. WHOA. by unity100 · · Score: 2

    So now, my act of giving gifts to other people in different settings, can be owned by someone OTHER than me ... or, i have to oblige by a certain private party's demands, when i want to do that in a different setting.

    explain me how this shit has not gone over the roof.

    --
    Read radical news here
    1. Re:WHOA. by Monchanger · · Score: 2

      First, don't confuse giving gifts with building a social network which includes gift-giving. The former isn't covered by the patent, only the latter.

      Second, acts are not protected because they are yours, not in the USA at least. You do not have the right to go on a killing spree. You do not have the right to rob a bank. Likewise, you do not have the right to capitalize on someone else's patented invention or copyrighted work, no matter how hard you thump on your chest with a copy of the constitution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 explicitly states that congress has (a certain amount of) power to legislate on behalf of inventors and authors.

      Of course none of that definitively means Facebook should be able to restrict you from competing in the space. That's why there's a patent office which should have determined that Facebook should not have gotten a patent, a court system which should invalidate the patent grant due to lack of being novel and a massive amount of prior art, and a legislative branch which should toss out all software patents.

  4. beam in thine own eye by t2t10 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yeah, and that will happen after you launch a successful Facebook competitor and become a gazillionaire, right? These patents matter because the few companies that could possibly compete with facebook are global.

    As for "truly free", Europe has serious restrictions on freedom of expression, much more onerous copyright restrictions (no fair use, for example), and strong limits on competition; in comparison, software patents are a small issue. And software patents are being pushed onto the member countries through the EU.

    1. Re:beam in thine own eye by max · · Score: 2

      "Serious restrictions on freedom of expression"? It would be nice to know WHAT part of Europe you are referring to. IMHO, the country I live in stille are more free when it comes to expression than the US. The copyright restrictions pushed on us now are backed by interests over in the great media publishing giant in the west, and the limits on competition as you call it is to *protect* competition from being destroyed by a monopoly-like situation.

      I seriously doubt that software patents are pushed onto the european member countries by the EU unless there were a precedent in the US backed by very strong and determined economic interests.

    2. Re:beam in thine own eye by ThinkWeak · · Score: 2

      What is the definition of a Social Network? Couldn't every MMORPG out there be considered a social network?

    3. Re:beam in thine own eye by jpapon · · Score: 2

      "Serious restrictions on freedom of expression"? It would be nice to know WHAT part of Europe you are referring to

      Well, for example, the fact that in the U.K. you can place anonymous gagging orders on newspapers so that they can't publish facts about you.

      --
      -- Let us endeavor so to live that when we pass even the undertaker shall be sorry. -- M. Twain
    4. Re:beam in thine own eye by jpapon · · Score: 2
      I tried to find a definition of it in the patent, but of the 159 instances of "social network" they used, only one comes anywhere close to defining what a social network is.

      Conventionally, a user of a networking website connects with other users by providing information about the user to a social network website for access by the other users. For example, a user may post contact information, background information, current job position, hobbies, and so forth. Information about personal events may also be posted by a user, for example on personal webpages, web logs (BLOGS), etc. Such posts may include information about gifts received, gifts given, purchases made, etc. Other users may contact the user and/or review information about the user based on common interests or for any other reason.

      As for MMORPGs, I would say they contain social networks (such as a guild, or a friends list), but are not strictly speaking social networks themselves. Of course this is all a bunch of nonsense anyways.

      I said several years ago that software patents would soon reach a level of absurdity that would make it impossible to justify their continued existence. Unfortunately, software patents crashed through that level a while ago, and have never looked back.

      --
      -- Let us endeavor so to live that when we pass even the undertaker shall be sorry. -- M. Twain
    5. Re:beam in thine own eye by MareLooke · · Score: 3, Informative

      No fair use? Citation needed because I seriously believe you pulled that one out of your ass. Afaik copyright law is also still in the hands of individual countries anyway, over here at least schools are free to use published articles in their entirety as they see fit, for example.

      And yeah spreading hate and trying to retroactively alter history (eg. negationism) isn't allowed in most of Europe, which is bad how? Also limits on competition? There's limits to prevent LACK of competition (ask all of your fellow Americans that get the "choice" of having only 1 cable provider how well that works for them)

      No idea why you were modded informative, as a Troll you did a damn good job though

    6. Re:beam in thine own eye by KDR_11k · · Score: 2

      That result may not necessarily be based on laws though (as in "you get beaten up by anybody passing by"). Try shouting "death to niggers" in a neighborhood with many blacks in the US and see how far appealing to the first amendment gets you.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    7. Re:beam in thine own eye by HBI · · Score: 2

      And yeah spreading hate and trying to retroactively alter history (eg. negationism) isn't allowed in most of Europe, which is bad how?

      There is danger in giving any government the power to regulate expression. Governments change, and some will use this power for ill. Giving it to a government to prevent something you consider offensive is a poor reason to take that risk.

      Also limits on competition?

      Competition is the very essence of innovation, where innovation is defined as improving the human condition. Regulating competition limits standard of living on a macro scale. There's a certain Luddite tinge to limiting competition*. "Life is good enough now, we don't need it to get better"

      The "more, better" society has its down side, but without it, nearly all of the progress since the Industrial Revolution wouldn't have happened. We'd have lifespans in the 30s overall and no antibiotics.

      * I see the same Luddite theology amongst the environmental movement as generally defined. I use the word theology purposefully.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
  5. Facebook is a fad by Colin+Smith · · Score: 2

    Subscribers are leaving in droves. A year or two and it will totally implode.

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    Deleted
    1. Re:Facebook is a fad by bmo · · Score: 2

      >Subscribers are leaving in droves.

      Assuming what you say is true, that means they're going to something else.

      Where are they going to?

      I've been waiting for Diaspora myself, but that seems to be moribund.

      --
      BMO

    2. Re:Facebook is a fad by vlm · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Or... They will get bought out by a patent troll.

      Or their new competitor, whatever it will be, will have to buy them out or else get patent trolled.

      That is the gameplan. Can't sell out once everyone leaves, but even if there are no subscribers, you still get to keep the "valuable" patents.

      Its a sign that FB internally realizes they have peaked and are on the decline.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    3. Re:Facebook is a fad by bmo · · Score: 2, Funny

      >snarky remark about online social media

      And yet, here you are on slashdot.

      --
      BMO

  6. We'll all be screwed by mswhippingboy · · Score: 2

    I'm thinking we'll all be SOL if someone decides to apply for a patent on "breathing". Apparently the "non-obvious subject matter" test (USPTO 35 U.S.C. 103 http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/appxl_35_U_S_C_103.htm) does not apply anymore, or maybe the "greasing of the skids" is just more blatant now.

    --
    Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
    1. Re:We'll all be screwed by Rennt · · Score: 2

      So we are just going to have to accept that patents have become an impediment to the innovation and commerce they were designed to protect?

      Or maybe reform is in order... Or maybe we recognize the system has long since stopped serving it's purpose, so we just throw the whole system out altogether.

    2. Re:We'll all be screwed by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 2

      Too much money running around in patents to move forward with reform. Not enough money to develop a time machine and b*tch slap the *sswipes that put this crap in the Constitution. You sir are looking at what we call an intractable situation. We're stuck with them until there no longer exists an authority to enforce them.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
  7. Giving gifts and displaying assets in a social net by ciderbrew · · Score: 2

    We used to give gifts of food and clothes to the poor children in far away lands at harvest time. All the gifts would be on show a the front of the Hall. Sorry children, our church cannot give you anything this year. Kindness is patented.

  8. Vague abstracts by Dunbal · · Score: 2

    So if "The Social Network" is playing on TV on Christmas, suddenly millions of people will be guilty of patent infringement... because of giving gifts in a social network environment.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  9. gifting online then and now by alphatel · · Score: 5, Funny
    Playing social games, 1989
    • gift troll bread
    • You gifted a bread to a large troll.
    • The troll smiles and lets you pass the bridge

    New ending! 2011

    • Mark Zuckerberg booms: Though shall not gift!
    • The troll, angry at your attempted patent theft, slays you
    --
    When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
  10. Re:Steam? by Pinky's+Brain · · Score: 2

    And Amazon before that, who did it with third party vendors as well ... so basically what this patent adds ... is "on a social network".

    Smell the non obvious* innovation.

    * as defined by lawyers and as agreed upon by a majority of idiots in Texas juries

  11. Maybe what we need is... by Ken+Hall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    .. one guy at the patent office to look at each patent for about five seconds, and stamp ones like this with "This is stupid, go away... NO PATENT FOR YOU!!"

  12. Re:At first glance by sosume · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This. It should not be possible to get a patent for an idea that just surfaced. Patents should only be granted for months upon months of hard work, research, validation and such. And expire after a short time, say 5 years.
    A patent for giving a gift, making a gesture or arranging a number of icons is just silly and killing the software industry. The patent office should void all such patents and since algorithms cannot be patented, no software patents should be allowed. At all.

  13. Re:Zuckerpunch! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

    I don't really think of blame as being a limited resource...

  14. Re:Zuckerpunch! by pinkushun · · Score: 2

    Bad *and* Absurd! Facebook's antics is becoming really annoying!

    I wonder if we can perform a psychological study, prove that Facebooking is addictive to the point of detriment and wellbeing, and class it as dangerous as scheduled medication.

    We can make a pretty penny hosting rehab centers. I'll start the Facebook group for our rehab project...

  15. Re:Zuckerpunch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can see it mentioned here.. "BlogBling"

    http://web.archive.org/web/20050405082100/http://www.bigattichouse.com/thoughtbrew.php

    I have the source and whatnot, and I know a few blogs still link to it.