Amazon has obtained, from the competent American body, the registration of a patent for «social network» that reproduces models of existing social networks, such as Facebook or Hi5.
In the text accompanying the patent application – which took more than two years to be accepted – familiar terms are used as «mechanisms that allow the user to communicate with other users (…) and receive automatic notifications of updates made by their contacts» .
Amazon’s patent application was filed with the Patent and Trademark Office on May 27, 2008 and cites as creators of the «concept» Brian Robertson and Warren Adams, co-founders of PlanetAll – considered by many to be the first social network -, a service that was purchased by the Internet giant in 1998 and closed in 2000.
The company has not yet issued any official statement on the matter, and it is not known what will be the use given to the patent now granted.
This is not the first time that the American organization has granted patents related to social networks. In February of this year, Facebook managed to register a patent on the feeds, requested in August 2006.
