China is overtaking India in its quest for growth by leaps and bounds, and it’s doing so by embracing innovation. However, except for a few instances, the ecosystem for fostering intellectual property continues to be dismal in India
Patents are funny little things. To understand what we’re trying to say, consider this – “A method for creating networking database containing a plurality of records for different individuals in which individuals are connected to one another in the database by mutual recognition of a relationship. This mutual recognition of a relationship is inferred by the possession of the Guest Key of one member by the other member. This paradigm for network expansion allows users to proactively grow their networks both using the site features and using tools they may be more familiar with, such as email, messaging, talking, etc.” If you’re feeling that we have crammed up a significant space with a definition straight out of a software programming manual, which for now makes no sense at all, then you’ll probably be shocked to know that this in summary is what defines a social network. This in fact is the abstract of the first ever social networking patent that was granted to inventors Jared Morgenstern and Edward Lim. The original assignee of the patent was Sixdegrees.com – a now defunct portal which was in some ways a shadow of what Facebook has evolved into. It was ahead of its time and therefore had to shut shop. However, the patent was later, in 2003, acquired by Reid Hoffman (Co-founder, LinkedIn) and Mark Pincus (Co-founder, Zynga) for $700,000 fearing that if resourceful players like Yahoo get their hands on it, they’ll bring the entire social networking ecosystem to a standstill for a significant amount of time. Their anxiety was compounded by the fact that most social networks during those days were start-up which were having trouble putting up money for basic infrastructure like servers. Had Yahoo (which was also a bidder) acquired the patent and gone on an offensive, these new businesses would have had no choice but to close down. For now, the owners of this seminal patent are, well, sitting on it. Pincus is out of the social networking business (before Zynga he had been a co-founder at a social network called Tribe.net). But Hoffman is very much on the same terrain. And his website LinkedIn is emerging as one of the most successful and sustainable social networks after Facebook. If for some reason he decides to sue Facebook, the latter will have no choice but to either settle down for an obnoxious amount or licence out some of its own patents in exchange for Hoffman’s.
In fact, very recently, Mark Zuckerberg experienced first hand what it might mean to get locked into a patent battle with a rival. After joining Yahoo, Scott Thompson – the now fired CEO – spearheaded the filing of a 10 patent infringement lawsuit claiming that Facebook had been violating Yahoo patents in the areas of news feeds, advertising and privacy settings. Instead of plunging into the battlefield Facebook agreed to licence its patents in exchange for Yahoo’s apart from strengthening the existing advertising and content sharing partnership. Before this unsolicited drama, the social network had to cough up $40 million to acquire some patents from Friendster (a social gaming site founded in 2002) in 2010. Now with privacy becoming a huge issue, Zuckeberg has finally managed to get a patent for ‘Dynamically generating a privacy summary’ which he had applied for in 2006. The patent defines the process of displaying a user’s profile based on his/her privacy settings. The development will help the now listed company by protecting a significant part of the social networking experience. Other social networks might have to eventually license out the patent from Facebook.
Patents are funny little things. To understand what we’re trying to say, consider this – “A method for creating networking database containing a plurality of records for different individuals in which individuals are connected to one another in the database by mutual recognition of a relationship. This mutual recognition of a relationship is inferred by the possession of the Guest Key of one member by the other member. This paradigm for network expansion allows users to proactively grow their networks both using the site features and using tools they may be more familiar with, such as email, messaging, talking, etc.” If you’re feeling that we have crammed up a significant space with a definition straight out of a software programming manual, which for now makes no sense at all, then you’ll probably be shocked to know that this in summary is what defines a social network. This in fact is the abstract of the first ever social networking patent that was granted to inventors Jared Morgenstern and Edward Lim. The original assignee of the patent was Sixdegrees.com – a now defunct portal which was in some ways a shadow of what Facebook has evolved into. It was ahead of its time and therefore had to shut shop. However, the patent was later, in 2003, acquired by Reid Hoffman (Co-founder, LinkedIn) and Mark Pincus (Co-founder, Zynga) for $700,000 fearing that if resourceful players like Yahoo get their hands on it, they’ll bring the entire social networking ecosystem to a standstill for a significant amount of time. Their anxiety was compounded by the fact that most social networks during those days were start-up which were having trouble putting up money for basic infrastructure like servers. Had Yahoo (which was also a bidder) acquired the patent and gone on an offensive, these new businesses would have had no choice but to close down. For now, the owners of this seminal patent are, well, sitting on it. Pincus is out of the social networking business (before Zynga he had been a co-founder at a social network called Tribe.net). But Hoffman is very much on the same terrain. And his website LinkedIn is emerging as one of the most successful and sustainable social networks after Facebook. If for some reason he decides to sue Facebook, the latter will have no choice but to either settle down for an obnoxious amount or licence out some of its own patents in exchange for Hoffman’s.
In fact, very recently, Mark Zuckerberg experienced first hand what it might mean to get locked into a patent battle with a rival. After joining Yahoo, Scott Thompson – the now fired CEO – spearheaded the filing of a 10 patent infringement lawsuit claiming that Facebook had been violating Yahoo patents in the areas of news feeds, advertising and privacy settings. Instead of plunging into the battlefield Facebook agreed to licence its patents in exchange for Yahoo’s apart from strengthening the existing advertising and content sharing partnership. Before this unsolicited drama, the social network had to cough up $40 million to acquire some patents from Friendster (a social gaming site founded in 2002) in 2010. Now with privacy becoming a huge issue, Zuckeberg has finally managed to get a patent for ‘Dynamically generating a privacy summary’ which he had applied for in 2006. The patent defines the process of displaying a user’s profile based on his/her privacy settings. The development will help the now listed company by protecting a significant part of the social networking experience. Other social networks might have to eventually license out the patent from Facebook.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
