Joannes
Jozef Everardus Van Der Meer, the founder of Aduna purchased the domain name
“surfbook.com.” Surfbook offered an online social networking environment just
like Facebook. Surfbook allowed its users to approve data with a “like” button.
He was granted the patents in 2001 and 2002. Van Der Meer passed away shortly
in 2004. In the memory of Van Der Meer, Rembrandt Social Media filed a
complaint for patent infringement against Facebookin the U.S. District Court of
Virginia. The article, Facebook
Sued for Patent Infringement over “Like” Button and Timeline Function indicated that “ ‘The complaint states that Surfbook also lets users
‘collect personal information and third-party content, organize the information
chronologically on a personalized Web page, and share the information with a
selected group of people, such as the end user’s friends, through the use of
user-settable privacy levels.’ "
Facebook is actually aware of Van
Der Meer’s patents, because Facebook cited Van Der Meer’s patents as reference
when Facebook was issued a patent for applications on wireless devices. I
wonder what Fafcebook is going to do next. I feel like Facebook would either
buy the patents if possible, or create another feature that is similar to the
“Like” button. This article reminds me when Professor Lavian mentioned in class
that 99.999…% inventions are improvement of something in the past, and only
0.0000…1% are actual inventions from original ideas.
See more information from the
article,
visit: http://www.ipbrief.net/2013/02/19/facebook-sued-for-patent-infringement-over-like-button-and-timeline-function/
Thank you for the share. Yes, I also think Facebook will pay for it, but it depends on the price. I will not be surprise if they will first go to the court, then seek for settlement after either side (most likely Rembrandt Social Media) find out there is no way to get a full victory
ReplyDeleteInteresting! I definitely see parallels between this situation and Facebook and Foursquare's "checking in" feature. As you pointed out, I guess it's just that hard come up with a completely unique idea.
ReplyDeleteThis is super interesting and Im glad I read this. I would like to think Facebook will buy the patents but can easily see them taking this to court. I definitely do not think Facebook will change their like feature at all. The little thumbs up is now the unofficial logo. Good find!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cory, it's too late it the game for Facebook to change their "like" functionality. They have international recognition tied with that like sign. However, I do seem them maybe finding a loophole and at worst finding a settlement.
ReplyDeleteYeah it will be hard for Facebook to change this Like button. However, I do think that this information about Van der Meer should be made way more public, as the original inventor should be awarded for his creation.
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