Facebook 的專利是技術移轉自哈佛大學嗎 ?

雖然這學期在大學部的課程是 [電子商務與網路安全」，但我還是決定講「長尾理論」和「六度分隔理論」，讓同學們比較瞭解電子商務以及網路產業的新趨勢與新應用。

講到「六度分隔理論」當然就一定會提到現在最紅的 SNS 網站 Facebook。之前我也曾寫文章與各位分享我曾嘗試以 Microsoft EXCEL 的 Social Network Analysis 軟體來分析人脈強度的文章。不過今天要和各位談得不是什麼開心農場還是什麼有趣的Facebook遊戲，因為媒體三天兩頭就在報導這類題材了，我們今天要談的是媒體比較少談論的主題 --- Facebook 的專利。



無疑的，Facebook 的創辦人 Mark Zuckerberg 可能是繼 Google 之後，在網路產業賺最多錢的網路創業金童，Google 最經典的故事是從 Stanford 大學衍生出來的公司，而且主要是透過一個稱為 PageRank 的專利技轉授權，也因為這樣，Stanford 大學從 Google 的股票中獲得了大筆的技轉收入。我好奇的是，那從哈佛大學衍生出來的 Facebook 有沒有類似的故事呢 ?

經過 USPTO 和 Google Patents 的專利資料庫一陣搜尋，我發現 Facebook 已經有多項專利，但主要發明人都是 Mark Zuckerberg，似乎與哈佛大學沒有什麼關聯，看來哈佛的技術移轉辦公室並沒有 Stanford 大學那麼能夠慧眼識英雄。

對 Facebook 的專利有興趣的朋友，可以看看下列幾篇專利說明文件的內容.....

• [APPLICATION] Systems and methods for social mappingUS Pat. 11639655 - Filed Dec 14, 2006Date: Aug., 2007 (54) SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SOCIAL MAPPING (76) Inventors: Mark Zuckerberg, Palo Alto, CA (US); Aaron Sitting, Palo Alto, ...
• [APPLICATION] Systems and methods for dynamically generating segmented community flyersUS Pat. 11499093 - Filed Aug 2, 2006 - ... Al Zuckerberg et al. (43) Pub. Date: Feb. ... SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DYNAMICALLY GENERATING SEGMENTED COMMUNITY FLYERS (75) Inventors: Mark Zuckerberg, ...
• [APPLICATION] System and method for tagging digital mediaUS Pat. 11580210 - Filed Oct 11, 2006... (54) SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TAGGING DIGITAL MEDIA (76) Inventors: Mark Zuckerberg, Palo Alto, CA (US); Aaron Sittig, Palo Alto, CA (US); Scott Marlette, ...
• [APPLICATION] Systems and methods for dynamically generating a privacy summaryUS Pat. 11493291 - Filed Jul 25, 2006 - ... GENERATING A PRIVACY SUMMARY (75) Inventor: Mark Zuckerberg, Palo Alto, CA (US) Correspondence Address: CARR & FERRELL LLP 2200 GENG ROAD PALO ALTO, ...
• [APPLICATION] Systems and methods for providing dynamically selected media content to a ...US Pat. 11503037 - Filed Aug 11, 2006... Inventors: Mark Zuckerberg, Palo Alto, CA (US); Andrew Bosworth, Palo Alto, CA (US); Chris Cox, Palo Alto, CA (US); Ruchi Sanghvi, Palo Alto, CA (US); ...
• [APPLICATION] System and method for dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a ...US Pat. 11503242 - Filed Aug 11, 2006... Al Zuckerberg et al. (43) Pub. Date: Feb., 2008 Generating News Items ... A NEWS FEED ABOUT A USER OF A SOCIAL NETWORK (76) Inventors: Mark Zuckerberg, ...
• [APPLICATION] Methods and aparati for recognizing a pattern of using information units and ...US Pat. 10439129 - Filed May 14, 2003... OF USING INFORMATION UNITS AND GENERATING A STREAM OF INFORMATION UNITS IN ACCORDANCE WITH A RECOGNIZED PATTERN (76) Inventors: Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, ...