The number of litigation cases in the area of social
networking is slowly increasing. Facebook, which was recently sued
by MacroSolve for patent infringement has been sued again in Delaware District
Court for patent infringement. Little known, California based, Real Time Social
Inventions LLC has sued Facebook, Salesforce.com Inc., Rockmelt Inc., Conduit
USA Inc., Yammer Inc., Glam Media Inc. and Oracle Corporation for infringement of
US7,853,881
(the ‘881 patent) on February 14, 2012.
The ‘881 patent was issued on December 14, 2010 and includes
3 independent claims and 22 dependent claims. The ‘881 patent i9s related to social
networks where members may interact online and live (in real-time) in the
context of some particular content or activity.
The first independent claim reads:
A method of
interacting in real-time with online users accessible through a computer
network, comprising: accessing by a first user a first real-time social network
comprising a community of members having a specific predetermined common
interest, the first real-time social network being within an interactor zone
that includes one or a logical collection of related real-time social networks,
the first user accessing the first real-time social network using an interactor
client application that allows the first user to communicate in real-time with
other online users who are members of said first or another one of said
real-time social networks; displaying in real-time to the first user identities
of other users who are online at the time and who are members of the first or
another one of said real-time social networks within said interactor zone and
who choose to be identifiable; and enabling using the interactor client
application real-time interaction by the first user with said selected ones of
said other online users.
The assignment history of ‘881 patent discloses the original
assignee as ISQ
Online, which is an online shopping application that utilizes social
networks for its functioning.
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