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What is diplomatic overture?

Does Facebook's implementation of bidding for CPC ads violate the Yahoo/Overture patent?

  • Facebook offers CPC bidding for it's self serve ad system. I'm curious if the Yahoo/Overture patent on bidding for CPC ads within search results applies to Facebook's implementation. It would seem that the patent only applies to search results. From the beginning of the patent's abstract: "A system and method for enabling information providers using a computer network such as the Internet to influence a position for a search listing within a search result list generated by an Internet search engine." Here is patent  6,269,361 for reference filed in 1999 and assigned to GoTo: http://1.usa.gov/gaqmmn And related patent 7,702,672, also related to search results, filed in 2009 by Yahoo for reference: http://1.usa.gov/eEhnAQ Here is the settlement press release between Google and Yahoo/Overture from 2004: http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/yahoo.html Here is a screenshot of the Facebook CPC bidding interface: http://i.imgur.com/xdVfX.png

  • Answer:

    Right offhand, I'd say that it may not, simply because Facebook ads are not search-driven (they're demographic-driven), which is a specific component of the patent claim.  But I'm definitely not a patent attorney, so I would defer to those with more experience to provide a better answer.This answer is not a substitute for professional legal advice....

Cliff Gilley at Quora Visit the source

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While expressing no opinion on the question, I will note that the abstract is not where you want to look. The question of whether something "violates" (i.e., infringes) a patent is entirely dependent on the claims (the numbered recitations appearing at the end of the patent, or at the beginning in some internet presentations).  You need to set forth the requirements of the independent claims and see if each described aspect (i.e., limitation) is present in the accused product.  The abstract only comes into play in the rare case when it is used to determine what the words of the claims mean.   Abstracts are intended merely to summarize the gist of the patent for easy reference.

Brandon Baum

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