[Air-L] Microsoft Social Networking Patent Application

[Michael Zimmer]

Care to expand on what you find amusing? The Peer-to-Patent project?  
Or perhaps MSFT's patent application?

-mz

-----
Michael Zimmer, PhD
Microsoft Fellow, Information Society Project
Yale Law School
e: michael.zimmer at yale.edu
w: http://michaelzimmer.org

On Apr 28, 2008, at 4:12 PM, Ulf-Dietrich Reips wrote:

> lol
>
> At 12:52 Uhr -0700 28.4.2008, info at peertopatent.org wrote:
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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