We learned last week that Yahoo has launched a patent infringement lawsuit against Facebook. Facebook is alleged to have infringed 10 of the more than a thousand patents Yahoo holds. Here is the list of the patents in question and some details.
The 10 patents in question touch on Facebook’s social networking concept, privacy controls, messaging function, advertising model and user customization capabilities. Indeed, nearly every aspect of Facebook as an online service is being challenged. This patent infringement lawsuit is so broad in scope that Yahoo claims that “Facebook’s entire social network model, which allows users to create profiles for and connect with, among other things, persons and businesses, is based on Yahoo!’s patented social networking technology.”
This lawsuit highlights some of the criticisms of software patent that have emerged in recent years. Software patents are often defined very vaguely, capable of very broad interpretations, such that they may cover general broad concepts that multiple software developers can easily think of on their own. For example, Patent #5,983,227 “Dynamic page generator”, one of the 10 patents in this lawsuit, describes a process to dynamically generate web pages based on user preferences. According to the patent filing, this patent was intended to generate news web pages that display custom selections of stock quotes, news headlines, sports scores, weather, and the like. Yahoo alleges that Facebook’s News Feed and Wall infringes this patent. Given its breadth, almost every web service that allow users to customize web pages may be considered infringements of this patent. Software patents have been criticized on this ground that innovation in the software industry can be easily stifled if holders of such broad patents are to enforce them aggressively.
Some companies acquire patents, enforce them against alleged infringers and collect settlements and damages as their main revenue source. This has given rise to defensive patents. Companies attempt to accumulate large patent portfolios, by patenting their own works and acquiring additional patents, as a way to defend against patent infringement litigations. Even internet giant Google, while advocating for patent reform, admits that it has no choice but to join in.
With large patent portfolios, an infringement lawsuit can be dealt with by reaching cross-licensing agreements with the suing company. That is to say, the parties involved can agree to grant each other the right to use their own patented technologies. A defendant company that has a small patent portfolio would be at a great disadvantage. Facebook has merely 21 patents, according to the US Patent Office website. This week, Facebook has begun its effort to remedy this disadvantage with its purpose of 750 patents from IBM.
It remains to be seen how this clash between two internet giants will play out. In any case, this is one more illustration that the US patent system is in need of significant reform.
Google is cheerfully suing Oracle over copyright infringement over code piracy.
In short it’s great for Google as long as Google gets money.
Believing Facebook and Google are acting in the public interest is like assuming Rupert Murdoch believes in freedom of speech.
The way that patents have evolved it seems to me that they are now evolving further into an alternative currency.
Patent everything, every subset of everything, assign each a potential value then begin trading.
This is actually what has happened with patents. We need a new trading floor for patents. NYPE.
“Yes, I’d like fries with that, how much are they? WHAT? Fries cost THREE PATENTS NOW??? No, I’ll just have the burger from the One Patent Super Saver Menu and a coke. Oh, fine, throw in the fries too, are your potato certified by Monsanto as Patent Paid Up? I don’t support potatos without patented dna in them. Yes, I know, I’m conservative, I admit it. I like to know my potatos are always the same dna structure every time and I want to know that my potato money is going to companies that strictly oversee their growers and make sure those growers are adhering to Monsanto’s high standards of production oversight. Of course I know it costs a little more for the growers to have to conform to those high standards set by Monsanto and pay Monsanto to make sure they do, so I guess I understand why fries cost Three Patents now. Thank God that Monsanto is there to supervise their patented dna potato growers, if they didn’t who would? The government? I can’t even imagine why the government might want to bother the patent world. Its all in order, potatos are managing themselves just fine, what do we need government regulation for? Just as long as I don’t have to eat potatos with dna from god knows where i’m just fine thank you very much. Do you have change for a one hundred patent bill? Love that cross around your neck. I still can’t believe the Supreme Court bought that arguement by the Catholic Church that they invented that symbol and own it. Is your annual license fee for it paid up? I was wearing mine the other day and a Catholic Bishop suddenly jumped out of a car and was running towards me surrounded by a bunch of cameramen videotaping the whole thing, he ran up and tore my necklace right off my neck, see this long scratch, and said he was taking it back till I paid my cross licensing fee for another year. Of course I started screaming at him that I didn’t have to pay, my grandmother had given it to me, she made it herself when she was a little girl and that it was one of the ones the Supreme Court gave a partial exemption to last year, but he just said I’d have to file an arbitration request with the Catholic certified arbration service Lord, Lord, and Lord but I can’t travel to Idaho during that one week in January they take arbitration requests, anyway, check out next weeks episode of Bishop the Cross Hunter, I’m on it. I got a coupon for a half price coffee at starbucks for agreeing to let them use the footage of it. I figured why not, its a free coffee! Thanks honey I’d better get on, I can hear the cars honking behind me. Praise the Lord, he takes care of us all! Oh, sorry, forgot to sign the eating agreement, duh! I’m so glad they let us have a little bit of help if any of this food makes us sick, the last time I got sick here they actually were very nice and sent me that vomit kit. It helped a lot, I threw up in the plastic bag like they said and put it in the trash like they said. They even sent a card later to say they hoped I was better now. I signed and returned it like they asked, I don’t know why they did but I just wanted to do the right thing. Sure with they gave those Doctor half off coupons liked they used to but what with all that fuss about Doctors taking too much of their money they just cut those coupons out. Oh well. Here it is honey, signed sealed and delivered. Bye.”
Here we go again with the patent wars. I learned last year about the many patent infringement lawsuit filed by Apple vs Samsung. I never knew that there was a patent lawsuit between Yahoo and Facebook as well. Thanks for the article, its worth the time.