Ocean Tomo Auctions

Ocean Tomo Auctions will offer the “Jaipuria Patent” for sale, U.S. Patent 7,047,202 which was filed back in 2001 and is considered one of the most important patents related to social networking. It will be offered as Lot 54 at the Ocean Tomo Fall 2007 Live IP Auction on October 25th at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago.

The patent claims priority to an earlier Indian patent and describes many of the fundamental workings of social networks, including creating an online social network including individual users and groups, accessing and using social network via the Internet or wireless devices, and advanced user privacy features.

In other words, this patent describes much of how all social networks are created, and thus gives the owner a significant advantage over the competition. If the hype surrounding this one is true, MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook and others may all be using processes covered by it.
More at:http://www.oceantomo.com/

[via Forbes]