Patent Holder Sues Over Facebook Like Feature

February 13, 2013 by

As a prior patent attorney dealing with method patents (aka process patents or loosely called software patents) this is a very interesting case to me. These are the types of patents involved with online businesses. Obviously Facebook, like any large company, may attract lawsuits due to their success. However some may have merit. This particular lawsuit against Facebook is very interesting.

Potentially Infringed Patents

There are two patents in question:

The first patent 6,289,362 is entitled System and method for generating, transferring and using an annotated universal address and patent 6,415,316 is entitled Method and apparatus for implementing a web page diary. Both list the inventor as Joannes Jozef Everardus Van Der Meer.

Lawsuit

From what I read in the BBC Article this individual has passed away. The patents were assigned to a holding company named Rembrandt Social Media. The case against Facebook was filed in the Federal Court in Virginia. This particular court is known as the Rocket Docket because after you file you can be in front of a judge, and jury, much faster than any other district. The patents were filed in 1998 and were issued in 2001 and 2002.

How to Read the Patent
Every patent has the same sections, such as the abstract and the description. The most important part is what is known as the Claims. Think of the claims as defining what is protected, much like a fence around a yard. Some claims are broader than others and therefore protect more much like a larger fence around a larger property. The patent ending in 316 discusses what they call a ‘diary’. I do not want to speculate on the case itself but as it unfolds I will provide what I find.

While most of what I have read discusses the “like” feature I am guessing there may be more features involved in this suit.

Filed Under: Online Business Featured, Patent Tagged With: ,

Instagramed and Instamine

December 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Person 1: “ You have Been instagramed! ”
Person 2: “ What seriously? ooh come on ”
Person 1: “ Yep, I have made your cool picture insta-mine and sold copies of it, I am keeping the money from the sales of the copies too. ”

instaours

Two New Terms Courtesy of Instagram
To quote the article by cnet entitled: Instagram says it now has the right to sell your photos, they state “Instagram said today that it has the perpetual right to sell users’ photographs without payment or notification”. Instagram just announced this policy change and if you have an account and do not agree to the terms you need to delete your account before January 16, 2013. See their TOS for yourself.

instagramed

[instah-graham-ed]
verb
to be told one thing then later told another, make a dupe of; to be deceived; to be tricked.
Origin:
Instagram, December 2012 – January 2013; < English;

Related forms:
in·sta·gram·able , as in “that person is instagramable. let’s tell them we will store their stuff for free, make copies of it and then sell the copies when they are not looking so we do not have to pay them”

instamine

[instah-mine]
verb
to have something of yours instantly become the property of someone else and to not receive compensation for it;
Origin:
Instagram, December 2012 – January 2013; < English;
as in “that painting is nice, I declare it insta-mine and will now make copies of it to sell, oh and by the way I am not sharing any of the revenue with you because all the revenue is insta-mine as well”

Thoughts
It is similar to eminent domain, however unlike the government Instagram is not bound by the fifth amendment to repay you for taking your property, and the property will not be used for the public benefit, in fact it will be used so Facebook (the acquirer of Instagram) will be able to increase their revenue. So on second thought I guess it is nothing like eminent domain.

instagram-kinda-free

You have been Instagramed !

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , , ,

Facebook Zynga and GroupOn Stock Going Down

July 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The world of social media and public companies has had a wild ride recently. Take a look at Facebook, Zynga and GroupOn who have lost billions in market value. Here are their recent closes and 52 week highs to give you some perspective.

  • ZNGA had a Thursday close of $3.18. The 52 week high is $15.91.
  • FB had a Thursday close of $26.84 and has dropped to $23.12 as of the writing of this post. The 52 week high is $45.
  • GRPN had a Thursday close of $6.61. The 52 week high is $31.14.

Not all of the stocks that they like to call ‘social media’ stocks have been going down. LinkedIn is not too far off from it’s 52 week high. The difference is quite simple, no matter what they business or how ‘cool’ you many think it is, it has to make money. The recent changes in stock price and valuations of each company are due to their business models and revenue. Always do your own research before considering purchasing a company no matter how fun or cool you think their products and services are.

Filed Under: Business, Online Business Featured Tagged With: , ,

Help Facebook Billionaires from Becoming Millionaires

June 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

You can help save Facebook! Facebook stock (Nasdaq: FB) was priced for their IPO at $38 a share, giving it a market cap around $100 billion. Their Price to Earnings ratio (P/E) at that valuation was around 100 times. The P/E is the share price compared to its per-share earnings. At that price you could say that those buying Facebook stock are assuming it will eventually generate 100 times more revenue per share.

For example if current earnings are $1 per share it should generate $100 per share at some point in the future. Actually as an investor if you were buying at 100x P/E you are hoping someone will buy it at a higher price or higher P/E. To be fair here is the current P/E of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG): 17, and current Facebook is 70 at the time I am writing this post. Both have similar revenue streams for their sites, I realize they are not exactly the same but for sake of argument they are similar. Essentially advertising is how they generate income.

facebook price to earningsSave Facebook by Buying More Stuff!
So here is how you can keep the Facebook value and stock price from falling any further. When you see advertisements in Facebook try to remember about how often you click on an advertisement. Then try to remember how many times you buy something after clicking an ad. Now to keep the stock from falling further we need to keep their P/E (as of the writing of this post) at 70. So all you need to do is the following:

1. Click on Ads 70 Times More than You Do Now
2. Spend 70 Times More than You Do Now

Therefore if you click on an advertisement once every three days, you need to click on 70 ads every three days. If you have spent $50 after clicking an advertisement you need to now spend $3,500. Another way to look at it is that we bought our three boys one pair of shoes each, so now I just have to buy 207 more pairs of shoes. My boys are pretty excited as they just reminded me we bought a video game too, they are actually having a hard time finding 69 more PS3 video games that they like.

Now this is not entirely accurate as their share price may begin rising as soon as revenue ramps faster but you get the point that it is not surprising that their stock price has slipped.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , , ,

Everyone is Beatable as MySpace Loses Members

April 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Just because your business is number one today does not mean it will be in the future. There is always someone gunning for the top spot. Take for example the latest news about MySpace. I have seen multiple articles about MySpace losing 10 million users. Most are quoting a comScore report that states there were 10 million less unique users in February (63 million) than in January (73 million). Let’s make a distinction between registered users and visitors. It seems some articles are making it sound as if they lost 10 million registered users, in other words those that had joined decided to close their account. What the comScore report shows is that 10 million less people visited the site in February than in January. I am not saying it is not significant, just clarifying. It is very significant.

myspaceI saw that last year in one month MySpace had attracted 95 million unique users. That is quite a difference between 95 million and 63 million. During this time Facebook has continued to grow. This just shows that you cannot become complacent, others are always gunning for you. Just because you are number one today does not mean you will be tomorrow, staying ahead of the curve is paramount.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: ,
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