Facebook Patent
A patent was just issued to Facebook on October 5, 2010 entitled “Systems and methods for automatically locating web-based social network members“. My disclaimer is that I used to practice law and I was also a patent attorney, that being said none of my comments here are to be construed as legal rants or anything you would rely on, as a matter of fact do not ever rely on anything I ever say. Now here are my totally un-rely-able comments. In a nutshell the patent covers the ability for them, Facebook, to obtain your location via the GPS in your telephone and update their database with your location.

What Exactly Does this Patent Cover – How Narrow or Broad is It?
This is always the question most people ask, particularly other companies that fear they may be infringing on the patent. Every patent has multiple sections, such as a description. What matters are the Claims. Think of the claims as a verbal fence and each word has particular meaning. If what you are doing fits inside that verbal fence then you could be deemed as infringing. Of course Facebook would need to sue you or at least request you stop, whether they will enforce the patent and with whom remains to be seen.

Claim 1:

1. A method of sharing locations of users participating in a social networking service at a geographic location, the method executed by a computer system and comprising: receiving location information and status information from a mobile device of a first user of the social networking service, the location information representing a geographic location of the first user, the status information manually provided by the first user on an input module of the mobile device; associating the location information with the status information of the first user in a database; and sending the status information and the location information of the first user to a second user for display.

This is what is known as an Independent claim. In other words it stands alone. You can see that claim 2 has the words “the method of claim 1″ which narrows claim 1 and is more specific. Claim 1, 8 and 21 are the independent claims. Here is how claim 1 breaks down.

A method of sharing locations of users participating in a social networking service at a geographic location, the method executed by a computer system and comprising:
• receiving location information and status information from a mobile device of a first user of the social networking service, the location information representing a geographic location of the first user, the status information manually provided by the first user on an input module of the mobile device;
• associating the location information with the status information of the first user in a database; and
• sending the status information and the location information of the first user to a second user for display.

Notice the three bolded words, that is what is happening here: Receiving, Associating, Sending. Also note this is a Method claim, in other words it is the method or process that is covered. So you can loosely say this covers Receiving Location, Associating Location with a User and Sending to a Second User. Since it is a method the particular hardware does not matter.

Notice claim 8 covers the location being entered manually and not derived from the mobile device but from the input of a user.

They also cover issues such as privacy (in claim 3), the ability for a social network member to disallow certain people from viewing their location. It does not mean they will offer that, it just means they claim coverage to that aspect as well. They probably just added it to make people feel better knowing that would be a public relations issue, pretty smart on their part.

Claim 16 is my favorite, it is a dependent claim from 1. It states that one person can determine the location of another and also be told how close they are. Now if only person 1 knew that person 2 was querying their location and whether or not they had a fire arm or other pain and/or death inducing apparatus. That would really be helpful. Or let me know if any of the people are nearing my home address after querying my location, I would really like to know if they are going to rob me. As my business partner Chris Breshears has pointed out, location based services are going to be one of the best tools for criminals.

What Will Facebook Do?
This is the most interesting part, do they enforce it or not? That is an interesting question. Right now the validity of the patent can be protested. We do not know if anyone will take the time to protest it, however rest assured they will as their first defense if sued by Facebook. This may just be a an arrow in their quiver to ward off competitors.