Wendy Piersall is one of many bloggers commenting about Friendster's being granted a patent by the US Patent & Trademark Office for an implementation of social networking. The Friendster patent claim was originally filed in 2003. The patent was issued in late June of this year. There are many interesting views floating around in the blogosphere about this, for example: * This is what happens when the patent examination process takes so long. * This will stifle innovation. * This will stimulate innovation. * Friendster's fortunes are in decline so it will have to take up suing people to make money. * Networking services like Linkedin will end up paying huge license fees and will have to shut down free subscriptions. * Some attorneys are going to make a lot of money over this.