Impending US patent war on "social networking" ?

[James Heald <j.heald@ucl.ac.uk>]

A flurry of articles about a possible impending patent war in the States 
on software systems to facilitate "social networking" (ie systems to 
make it easy for you to contact your contacts' contacts).

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&q=social+networking+patent&btnG=Search+News

The key patent is said to be US 6,175,831.  Apparently no EP.
http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=US6175831&CY=gb&LG=en&DB=EPD


Method and apparatus for constructing a networking database and system

Abstract

A networking database containing a plurality of records for different 
individuals in which individuals are connected to one another in the 
database by defined relationships. Each individual has the opportunity 
to define the relationship which may be confirmed or denied. E-mail 
messaging and interactive communication between individuals and a 
database service provider provide a method of constructing the database. 
The method includes having a registered individual identify further 
individuals and define therewith a relationship. The further individuals 
then, in turn, establish their own defined relationships with still 
other individuals. The defined relationships are mutually defined.

Claim 1

1. A networking database system comprising:

a communication port;

a web server connected to the communication port;

a database containing a plurality of records;

a database server connected to the database for operating on said database;

a database connectivity engine connected to the web server for 
preprocessing the output of the web server and connected to the database 
server;

a queue watcher coupled to said database server for queuing outgoing 
e-mails;

a mail server operatively connected to the communication port to receive 
incoming e-mails, and connected to said queue watcher to transmit 
outgoing e-mail; and

a parser connected to the mail server to process incoming e-mails and 
connected to the database server;

wherein the database server is responsive to the parser processing to 
manipulate a record in the database, and selected ones of said plurality 
of records are linked to selected other ones of said plurality of 
records by a confirmed defined relationship or a denied defined 
relationship.