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According to USPTO data, Facebook currently owns more than 42 patents — plus about in-progress 80 patent applications.
Of all the patents, it appears about a dozen were inventions by engineers inside Facebook. The rest came from acquisitions. Facebook has been on an acquisition frenzy these last 12 months, cash-rich as it is. Of a total of 32 plus acquired patents, 11 came in 2011. All but one arrived in 2010.
Notice the preponderance of data aggreggation patents. Anyone who is wondering what business Facebook means when its says “advertising” as its primary revenue stream in its S1 should just look here.
I am pasting in links soon. In the mean time, here are the ids you need at the US PTO to look at any of these patents. This info is key to some of you involved in the Facebook IPO. So in the interest of time. Here is what I have for you so far:
THE FACEBOOK CREATED PATENTS:
At least these US patents have been issued to date based on Facebook’s own inventions. Notice Mark Zuckerberg is listed as an inventor on several below.
Patent No. Title Assignor
7827208 GENERATING A FEED OF STORIES PERSONALIZED FOR MEMBERS OF A SOCIAL NETWORK Andrew Bosworth et al
7933810 COLLECTIVELY GIVING GIFTS IN A SOCIAL NETWORK ENVIRONMENT Jared Morgenstern
7970657 GIVING GIFTS AND DISPLAYING ASSETS IN A SOCIAL NETWORK ENVIRONMENT Jared Morgenstern
7809805 SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATICALLY LOCATING WEB-BASED SOCIAL NETWORK MEMBERS Jed Stremel et al
7669123 DYNAMICALLY PROVIDING A NEWS FEED ABOUT A USER OF A SOCIAL NETWORK Mark Zuckerberg et al.
7725492 MANAGING INFORMATION ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS IN A SOCIAL NETWORK VIA A SOCIAL TIMELINE Mark Zuckerberg et al.
7797256 GENERATING SEGMENTED COMMUNITY FLYERS IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM Mark Zuckerberg et al.
7827265 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONFIRMING AN ASSOCIATION IN A WEB-BASED SOCIAL NETWORK Charlie Cheever et al
7945653 TAGGING DIGITAL MEDIA Mark Zuckerberg et al.
8027943 SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR OBSERVING RESPONSES TO INVITATIONS BY USERS IN A WEB-BASED SOCIAL NETWORK Yun-Fang Juan et al.
ACQUIRED PATENTS
Eleven of the some 32 patents came via the Friendster aquisition around June 2010. Rumors at the time said Facebook paid 40 million dollars for these patents, but I couldn’t find documentation of it.
Patent No. Title Assignor Assignment Date
6421651 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRIORITY-BASED JUKEBOX QUEUING Walker Digital 8/5/2011
6430537 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRIORITY-BASED JUKEBOX QUEUING Walker Digital 8/5/2011
7188080 SYSTEMS AND METHODS WHEREIN A BUYER PURCHASES PRODUCTS IN A PLURALITY OF PRODUCT CATEGORIES Walker Digital 8/5/2011
7340419 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCT DISPLAY Walker Digital 8/5/2011
7526440 METHOD, COMPUTER PRODUCT, AND APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING THE PROVISION OF OPINIONS TO A SHOPPER FROM A PANEL OF PEERS Walker Digital 8/5/2011
7835950 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCT DISPLAY Walker Digital 8/5/2011
7912758 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCT DISPLAY Walker Digital 8/5/2011
6199157 SYSTEM, METHOD AND MEDIUM FOR MANAGING INFORMATION Applied Materials, Inc 5/7/2009
6393468 DATA ACCESS CONTROL British Telecommunication Company 4/22/2011
7233997 METHOD OF AUTHENTICATING A USER OF A CLIENT TERMINAL British Telecommunication Company 4/22/2011
7373338 ACCESS CONTROL TO SHARED RESOURCES British Telecommunication Company 4/22/2011
7231428 COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING ALIAS MANAGEMENT RULES FOR AUTOMATICALLY CHANGING SENDER ALIAS IN A MESSAGE BASED ON GROUP THAT INCLUDES RECIPIENT ADDRESS DIVAN INDUSTRIES, LLC 8/10/2011
7069308 SYSTEM, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONNECTING USERS IN AN ONLINE COMPUTER SYSTEM BASED ON THEIR RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN SOCIAL NETWORKS Friendster 6/7/2010
7117254 METHOD OF INDUCING CONTENT UPLOADS IN A SOCIAL NETWORK Friendster 6/7/2010
7188153 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING CONNECTIONS IN AN ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK Friendster 6/7/2010
7451161 COMPATIBILITY SCORING OF USERS IN A SOCIAL NETWORK Friendster 6/7/2010
7478078 METHOD FOR SHARING RELATIONSHIP INFORMATION STORED IN A SOCIAL NETWORK DATABASE WITH THIRD PARTY DATABASES Friendster 6/7/2010
7606687 PROXIMITY SEARCH METHODS USING TILES TO REPRESENT GEOGRAPHICAL ZONES Friendster 6/7/2010
7680882 MULTIMEDIA AGGREGATION IN AN ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK Friendster 6/7/2010
7788260 RANKING SEARCH RESULTS BASED ON THE FREQUENCY OF CLICKS ON THE SEARCH RESULTS BY MEMBERS OF A SOCIAL NETWORK WHO ARE WITHIN A PREDETERMINED DEGREE OF SEPARATION Friendster 6/7/2010
7890501 VISUAL TAGS FOR SEARCH RESULTS GENERATED FROM SOCIAL NETWORK INFORMATION Friendster 6/7/2010
8010458 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING INFORMATION FLOW BETWEEN MEMBERS OF AN ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK Friendster 6/7/2010
8037093 FEEDING UPDATES TO LANDING PAGES OF USERS OF AN ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK FROM EXTERNAL SOURCES Friendster 6/7/2010
6065051 APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MULTIPLE BROWSERS Hewlett-Packard 2/15/2010
6253325 APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SECURING DOCUMENTS POSTED FROM A WEB RESOURCE Hewlett-Packard 2/15/2010
6314458 APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MULTIPLE BROWSERS Hewlett-Packard 2/15/2010
6633311 E-SERVICE TO MANAGE AND EXPORT CONTACT INFORMATION Hewlett-Packard 2/15/2010
6691158 E-SERVICE TO MANAGE CONTACT INFORMATION AND TRACK CONTACT LOCATION Hewlett-Packard 2/15/2010
6889213 E-SERVICE TO MANAGE CONTACT INFORMATION WITH PRIVACY LEVELS Hewlett-Packard 2/15/2010
6952730 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENT FILTERING OF DATA SET ADDRESSES IN A WEB CRAWLER Hewlett-Packard 2/15/2010
7017109 E-SERVICE TO MANAGE CONTACT INFORMATION AND SIGNATURE ECARDS Hewlett-Packard 2/15/2010
7024451 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MAINTAINING CONSISTENT INDEPENDENT SERVER-SIDE STATE AMONG COLLABORATING SERVERS Hewlett-Packard 2/15/2010
