Facebook Locks Down Social Gift Giving Patent

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."

Comments

WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

beam in thine own eye

[t2t10]

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.

gifting online then and now

[alphatel]

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