[Air-L] Microsoft Social Networking Patent Application

[info at peertopatent.org]

Dear Friends,
 
Microsoft has a patent application posted on the Peer-to-Patent site
(http://www.peertopatent.org) for Recommending contacts in a social
network.
It is posted here
http://www.peertopatent.org/patent/20080059576/activity.
 
We are soliciting your help and that of the communities you know in
finding prior art that will help the Patent Office to examine this
application and determine if it deserves a twenty-year grant of rights
to prevent all others from making, using, or selling this invention
(this includes any research and R&D that would touch upon the claims of
the invention, if patented).  Can you let people know about this
opportunity?  We invite them to submit: 1) prior art, 2) to annotate the
prior art submitted by others, 3) to vote on the relevance of the public
submissions, and 3) to suggest fruitful avenues for research for the
USPTO when examining this application. 
  
Peer-to-Patent is not just another blog, wiki or website.  It is an
"extension" of the government institution!   Posted information will be
forwarded directly to the United States Patent and Trademark Office and
be used in the examination process.  
 
Here's a bit more detail about the application and about Peer-to-Patent:
 
Recommending contacts in a social network
A method and system for recommending potential contacts to a target user
is provided. A recommendation system identifies users who are related to
the target user through no more than a maximum degree of separation. The
recommendation system identifies the users by starting with the contacts
of the target user and identifying users who are contacts of the target
user's contacts, contacts of those contacts, and so on. The
recommendation system then ranks the identified users, who are potential
contacts for the target user, based on a likelihood that the target user
will want to have a direct relationship with the identified users. The
recommendation system then presents to the target user a ranking of the
users who have not been filtered out.
  
Peer-to-Patent is an initiative of New York Law School's Institute for
Information Law and Policy in cooperation with the United States Patent
and Trademark Office (USPTO).  The pilot program allows for public
participation in the patent examination process by inviting the public
to submit annotated prior art relevant to examining computer and
software-related patent applications.
   
The Peer-to-Patent Web site enables those who sign up to:
  
--review and discuss posted patent applications
 
--share research to locate references to relevant earlier publications
 
--submit these prior art references with an explanation of relevance
 
--annotate and evaluate submitted prior art
 
--winnow the top ten prior art references, which, together with
commentary, will be forwarded directly to the USPTO
   
Reviewing patent applications is free and open to all via the
Peer-to-Patent Web site at www.peertopatent.org.  Bloggers are invited
and encouraged to host their own conversations about pending patent
applications and then submit prior art via the Peer-to-Patent website. 
Any assistance y ou can provide by encouraging participation in the
Peer-to-Patent review process will be helpful.
 
  
Regards,
 
  
The Peer-to-Patent Team