Nickname: Alex

Review: Will this patent apply outside the USA? What will happen to similar EU based sites? Thanks!

Date reviewed: Sep 27, 2006 4:52 PM

Nickname: splice

Review: what about sixdegrees? they were doing the friendster thing years before friendster was around.

Date reviewed: Aug 23, 2006 12:02 AM

Nickname: webbie

Review: I think that we're going to see an interesting future in "social networking." Friendster would be wrong to sell to MySpace, which got where it is by accident! It's the users that built it. Besides, they're out of control in terms of management. MySpace either cannont or will not manage their users. Friendster filed a patent and got it. I think MySpace deserves to have to pay licensing. They should have known about the patent before the $580 million was spent to buy MySpace. On whether users will leave if there's lawsuit, I think it's possible. I'm sure everyone on Friendster has a MySpace, or has a friend there. But, there are so many MySpacers that if they get shut out because of this patent, who know's what will happen. Like I said, I think it will be an interesting future on the matter.

Date reviewed: Jul 30, 2006 3:33 AM

Nickname: Crashtest

Review: I am wholeheartedly in favor of patents that protect invention, not innovation. The last post makes that distinction clear. The examiners at the PTO are clearly behind the times, and they don't understand that what's been patented is merely an elaboration of a social theory, using the same formulas first posited by sociologists in the 1960s. A perfect example of a silly protection they got: you now can't invite someone to use a site via e-mail and then confirm their acceptance by e-mail. I'm not positive on this--is there a patent out there on the pattern of human beings invitng each other to a party, and they say yes, and confirming that affirmative response? It's just cheap, vague silliness.

Date reviewed: Jul 20, 2006 3:32 AM

Nickname: LJ Romanoff

Review: Bee, Friendster did not invent the concept of social networking. Social networking sites existed long before Friendster, as referenced in the article. Any company that finds itself the target of a Friendster patent enforcement lawsuit will likely make this fact part of their argument.

Date reviewed: Jul 17, 2006 5:50 PM

Nickname: BEE

Review: The thing about a patent is that if you don't enforce it, then it is worthless. I understand this guy's point about all the users deserting if Friendster sues MySpace and other websites, that stole their idea without compensating them. Thinking of something and implementing it is work, and just like I can't steel a cookie from Rosie's bakery. Other companies should pay Friendster to use their idea. I am not saying that Friendster shouldn't make its concept supremely cheap. I am just saying that respecting the rights of inventors, yields more innovation, not less.

Date reviewed: Jul 17, 2006 3:16 PM

Nickname: Good Guy

Review: Friendster.com congrats on the patent. When you build it and spend millions and time to protect your work, how great it is to be in "America."

Date reviewed: Jul 16, 2006 10:07 PM

Nickname: DysfunctionalDevlin

Review: Myspace, buy Friendster quick!

Date reviewed: Jul 16, 2006 6:49 AM

Nickname: Chris

Review: I imagine that if a social networking web site sues something, all its users will desert instantly. I would.

Date reviewed: Jul 15, 2006 9:49 PM

Nickname: Jared Smith

Review: I'm thinking of patenting a "system, method, and apparatus wherein patents are secured for the sole intent of pursuing litigation, subsidizing overpaid lawyers, and stifling innovation." Once I get my patent (and based on the patent office's track record, I'm confident I will), I can finally put an end to such madness and then in turn sue the pants off these patent sharks. Seriously though, is no one ever going to realize that the patent system devised for mechanical innovation does not apply well to digital innovation?

Date reviewed: Jul 14, 2006 9:08 PM