

Question: Do you need to file a patent for ideas that you want to develop?  - raymondyum

I have read some articles in Forbes regarding patents and how to file them. Now, I'm just interested if such websites needed to be patented also. Did digg.com patented its development before? Did Facebook patented its development?<p>Friendster have one "Copyright 2002-2008 Friendster, Inc. All rights reserved. U.S. Patent No. 7,069,308, 7,117,254 &#38; 7,188,153"<p>But Facebook is also a social network, then why can facebook and myspace develop the same social network while Friendster have a patent on it?
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ScottWhigham
I have no clue on how to respond. Did I patent my website? No. One huge
challenge w/ technology like the web is how do you patent an idea (like the
algorithm for search or popularity)? Go ahead - patent "x = (1/y) _z" or
whatever your algorithm is and, while you're doing so, a competitor is
creating a website based on a=b_ (1/c).

That sort of thing isn't patentable or, to put it a better way, it isn't
defensible if you do patent it. If you are a startup, are you going to sue
netscape.com when they come up with a copy of your algorithm (like they did w/
digg)? Nooooo.

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volida
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