Friendster, one of the (if not the?) social networks that made social networks what they are today, has been far surpassed in popularity by MySpace. Still,they managed to patent "determining and display of realtionships between individuals who have entered personal information into a social network" back before that meant something, and now it may be their saving grace. Since the US Patent Office is 3 years behind, its allowed a market to bloom, and if upheld and defined within certain scope, may mean that a lot of big players have to pay up. technorati tags:myspace, facebook, friendster, social, networking, patent, reform, lawsuits
