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Re patents: If FB really did essentially 'copy' LB's feature (as opposed to independently inventing it without having first known about it), then they wouldn't
by dctoedt 16y ago
Re patents: If FB really did essentially 'copy' LB's feature (as opposed to independently inventing it without having first known about it), then they wouldn't be able to get a US patent. See 35 USC 102(f) at http://goo.gl/36yy http://goo.gl/36yy.
Even if FB did independently invent the feature, LB's US-hosted and US-available feature might count as "prior art" that knocked out FB's ability to get a patent.
Of course, much depends on just what FB would try to claim.
- arihant 16y agoLB is an Indian company. If a US company and Indian company invent the same thing regardless of chronological order and if each company takes patents in their respective country, this can prohibit each company to operate in other's country. But you may be right. LB being hosted in US might well be qualified as 'operating in US', which might prevent FB getting patent in US. In any case, if LB was so paranoid about someone stealing their 'photo recommendation engine', they must have at the very least filed patent pending applications in India and US. LB's outburst suggest they are thinking of this as an infringement of some sort, but these things won't work in web startups. How many countries will anyone run around getting patents to make sure nobody else does it? Maybe, in future we have better governing stuff for the web,