Facebook last week won the right to call the news feed its very own. Patent 7,699,123 was issued by the U.S. Patent Office last Tuesday to CEO Mark Zuckerberg and seven other Facebook executives.
It’s described as a method for displaying a news feed in a social network environment. The method includes, in essence, generating information about a social networking site’s users; attaching links about the activities to the news items; restricting access to the user’s friends or social networking group; and arranging the news items in order.
However, several other social networking sites have launched Facebook-type feeds over the years in which users could get updates about their friends’ latest activities.
These sites may now find themselves in a battle with Facebook if it tries to assert ownership of the technology. However, Facebook may not be able to enforce the patent.
Full story: Technology News: Social Networking: Facebook’s News Feed Patent Lock – Vaguely Menacing?