It’s been a long time since I updated but this latest local tech news warrants a post. As many of you might have heard by now, our very own MOL AccessPortal Berhad acquired the online social network pioneer Friendster yesterday. I shall not dwell into the finer details of this acquisition but rather more on the value of it. So why is it a good move by MOL? It’s the patents my dear friends!

Patents give the owner the right to control the use of whatever is patented process, machine, article of manufacture, compositions of matter or any new useful improvement on one. There may be a defensive motive to obtaining a patent to ensure that you will be able to do whatever the patent protects. But by the same token a patent holder can prevent its use by others and, more to the point, profit from their use of it.

Friendster’s patent portfolio is one of several assets of the company. Friendster applied for a dozen patents back in 2003 and won its first back in July of 2006, which got quite a bit of attention as it was basically considered a “patent on social networking.”  The site has recently been eclipsed by Facebook and MySpace in the U.S. but has since turned its focus on Asia (where it’s now number one with over 75 million registered users).

Whether Friendster will use the time-tested ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, take em to court’ strategy is yet to be seen, but to their credit: they apparently applied for the patent (issued June 27 of 2006) way back in the day, before they fell from their perch.

Anyways I expect that the chorus of voices demanding patent reform will grow much louder. Here is a list of all Friendster approved patents:

1] 7,069,308 – System, method and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks
2] 7,117,254 – Method of inducing content uploads in a social network
3] 7,188,153 – System and method for managing connections in an online social network
4] 7,451,161 – Compatibility scoring of users in a social network
5] 7,478,078 – Method for sharing relationship information stored in a social network database with third party databases

The are many more in pending as well:
7,310,676, 7,359,894, 7,392,295, 7,424,541, 7,509,344, 7,545,784, 7,584,382, 7,593,740, 7,603,292, 7,606,580, 7,606,687, 7,613,769 & 7,620,636

As you can see just by reading the titles alone, most Social Networks (if not all) uses some or a combination of the methods above. It will be interesting to see just how MOL strategies will be pertaining to this in the months ahead.