Sorry Facebook, Google Already Had A Patent On Location-Based Social Networks
Facebook created quite a stir yesterday when it emerged that the company has a patent on location-based social networking, a very competitive and crowded field Facebook has just entered.
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook’s entry into location-based social networking follows a period in which Google secured a location-based advertising patent and both companies were named in a mobile social-networking patent suit. Glympse’s real-time location sharing integration with Facebook also showed that location features were already being layered into established social platforms.
Google’s earlier patent means Facebook’s newly disclosed patent does not by itself establish exclusive control over location-based social networking. The overlap makes intellectual-property positioning part of the competitive contest as Facebook enters the category.
First-order effects
- Facebook gains a patent asset for its location-social product strategy, but Google’s existing patent constrains any claim that Facebook alone controls the underlying category.
- Google’s earlier filing strengthens its defensive position as Facebook adds location-based social features to its network.
Second-order effects
- Overlapping rights raise the value of cross-licensing, design-around work, and patent defenses for Facebook, Google, and developers building location-sharing services on their platforms.
- Smaller location-social companies face a more complex partner and product environment when the two dominant platforms hold relevant patent claims.
Third-order effects
- The episode points to a patent-thicket dynamic in social-location services, where control is more likely to come from portfolios, distribution, and integrations than from a single broad claim.
- As location features become embedded in social networks, patents become a bargaining instrument between platform owners as much as a barrier to new entrants.
The trend: Location-based social networking is developing as a platform competition in which feature rollouts are accompanied by overlapping intellectual-property claims.