> Does the government think that if they had software patents they could get a Facebook too? It'd be an amusing thought, given Facebook's success was particula

> Does the government think that if they had software patents they could get a Facebook too? It'd be an amusing thought, given Facebook's success was particularly aided by patents not getting in their way and they've very rarely utilized patents to go after other companies (they pursued BlackBerry in 2018 after BlackBerry first filed a patent lawsuit against them). I don't think the so called Six Degrees patent [1] for example was ever ultimately used to harm any companies, with Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus choosing not to try to use it against Facebook or any other networks (Twitter, Snapchat, etc). Their various investing activities into some of those companies certainly may have played a role in that restraint (with Zynga being heavily dependent on Facebook for much of its history also). [1a] https://patents.google.com/patent/US6175831B1/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US6175831B1/en [1b] https://www.cnet.com/news/investors-snub-friendster-in-patent-grab https://www.cnet.com/news/investors-snub-friendster-in-paten... [1c] https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/who-owns-facebooks-most-important-patent-not-facebook/1943186/ https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/who-owns-facebooks-mos...