Yahoo has filed a patent infringement suit against Facebook. The case has been filed in federal court in San Jose, California.
Yahoo says that it is suing over ten patents that are related to web-based advertising. Yahoo is also suing because the company says that Facebook is using a social networking model that is based on Yahoo’s patented social networking technology.
In plain English, here are the things that this dispute is about:
US Patent 7454509 Online Playback system with community bias
This refers to a music station that selects what songs to play based on what you and your friends have indicated that you like to listen to.
US Patent 7599935 Control for enabling a user to preview display of selected content based on another user’s authorization level
This one is basically talking about the News Feed page in Facebook. Everything you see is there because your friends decided to share that content with you.
US Patent 5983227 Dynamic Page Generator
The easiest way to describe this is to say that it is talking about an individualized homepage that you can modify and customize to better suit your own personal interests.
US Patent 7747648 World Modeling using a relationship network with communication channels to entities.
In short, this patent is talking about a system that allows you to send a private message to someone else that you have connected with within a particular social media system. It is talking about the “e-mail” that you get within Facebook.
US Patent 7406501 System and method for instant messaging using an e-mail protocol
This patent refers to the instant messaging system that you can use to talk to other people who are also on Facebook. In other words, the chat function.
US Patent 6907566, US Patent 7100111, and US Patent 7373599 Method and system for optimum placement of advertisements on a webpage
These three patents are all referring to when Facebook places an ad on its website that is based on things you have done before. Those ads that sit on the side of your Facebook page are specifically targeted to your interests, based on what you clicked on or “liked” in Facebook.
US Patent 7668861 System and method to determine the validity of an interaction on a networking
This patent refers to the system that Facebook uses to figure out if someone who joined Facebook is a real person. It uses the data posted by said user to make that determination.
US Patent 7269590 Method and system for customizing views of information associated with a social network user.
Have you ever logged into Facebook and noticed that one of your friend’s current profile photos has been displayed? This patent refers to the system that is used to decide which friend’s photos you will see.
Image: Facebook Social Media by BigStock