

Mark Zuckerberg's Patent - kirubakaran
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220080046976%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20080046976&RS=DN/20080046976

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jgrahamc
Wow! A summary of privacy settings. Amazing! It's so original and clever. Boy,
I wish other software could have a summary of privacy settings. We could even
generalize this to summaries of other sorts of settings.

My head spins with the genius of it. I think I need a lie down.

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osipov
I'm not a shilling for Zuckerberg but you are being too hard on him. First,
the patent isn't for "summary of privacy settings", it is for a
systems/methods to generate the said summary. Second, a patent isn't supposed
to be original or clever. The criteria are 1) novel, which can be a non-
original, i.e. a derivative work. 2) non-obvious (to one skilled in the arts)
or in other words non-obvious to a patent examiner who doesn't know much
except for some prior patents in the field.

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axod
Any software patent is 'non-obvious' to a non-programmer. That's the problem
with them.

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plusbryan
them = patents, or non-programmers?

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mcxx
Patents, of course.

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tlrobinson
Well the real problem is the patent examiners probably aren't programmers,
thus won't have a good idea of what should be patentable.

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kobs
For most CS students/programmers, I'd wager that being a patent examiner isn't
very alluring. This is even more evident at career fairs where representatives
from the USPTO have to get in your face to grab your attention. You just don't
see too many students lining up to talk to them, rather than say, Google or
Microsoft.

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nadim
Sounds like a good candidate for the EFF patent busting project:
<http://w2.eff.org/patent/>

Anyone know of any prior art?

(I don't know if they pick patents to bust on their own or take requests)

EDIT: If the above poster osipov is correct and this patent is legit/novel,
please disregard my comment.

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ComputerGuru
It isn't novel. See my reply above.

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kirubakaran
I request everyone to donate to EFF.

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jzawodny
amen

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tstegart
This is a joke right? I mean, it sounds like the patent for a web form. Get
info, use info, deliver it back to user. Replace privacy summary with almost
anything else and you have a basic function of most websites.

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okeumeni
Lets all say it the way it should be: this is a joke!! A patent for a high
school level process programming? Come on!

Sorry I had to post another comment after actually reading the whole stuff.

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okeumeni
If this patent weren’t from the founder of Facebook it will almost sound
funny. I have never seen anything like this.

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t0pj
IMHO, MZ as inventor of said patent makes this funny*scary^2.

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fourlittlebees
Look at the patent app again. It's not just privacy settings; it's the
blueprint for the mechanism that the Data Portability group has been talking
about. That's why Zuckerberg doesn't want Facebook to really play their
reindeer games. They want to build it themselves and have Facebook as the hub
of the wheel with spokes off to everything else.

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pixcavator
After reading the discussion I have to point out the obvious: it's an
application not a patent.

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jonknee
I thought it was going to be about a system of being a dick to everyone you've
ever done business with or who helped you early on, but this is almost as
obvious.

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okeumeni
Say it loud! more details please.

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jmzachary
I wonder if they submitted this patent application in crayon. The abstract
reads like it was written by a third grader.

