The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 15, 2016
Filed:
Jun. 27, 2014
Yahoo! Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Christopher T. Szeto, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Michael Holzer, San Jose, CA (US);
Yahoo! Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
Techniques for creating a social network are provided. Private relationships that are established (e.g., in the context of instant messaging) may become public by the action of a single user. Each user determines whether they want to be 'social' to (or discoverable by) friends of the user's friends. For example, user A is a friend of (i.e., has established a relationship with) user B and user B is a friend of user C, but user A and user C are not friends of each other (i.e., user A and user C have not established a relationship with each other). If user C unilaterally takes an action, then user A is able to see that user C is a friend of user B. User A may then take further actions to attempt to establish a relationship with user C or otherwise contact user C.