Are these software patents with the same name and inventors distinct?

Question

When I worked for a tech company, I was involved in patent applications. Searching the US PTO site, I see four patents with the same name and inventor lists but different patent numbers:

• Nielsen, Thomas A.; Spertus, Ellen; and Drobychev, Alexandre. Methods and Systems for Controlling Access to Relationship Information in a Social Network. US Patent #7,716,140, May 11, 2010.
• Nielsen, Thomas A.; Spertus, Ellen; and Drobychev, Alexandre. Methods and Systems for Controlling Access to Relationship Information in a Social Network. US Patent #8,429,090, April 23, 2013.
• Nielsen, Thomas A.; Spertus, Ellen; and Drobychev, Alexandre. Methods and Systems for Controlling Access to Relationship Information in a Social Network. US Patent #8,489,516, July 16, 2013.
• Nielsen, Thomas A.; Spertus, Ellen; and Drobychev, Alexandre. Methods and Systems for Controlling Access to Relationship Information in a Social Network. US Patent #8,775,326, July 8, 2014.

Are these really 4 distinct patents that I can list on my CV and brag to my current employer about (useless as I consider software patents)?

Answer 1

In a word yes. At least I do. There are four distinct US patents and you can list them as such. On my CV I list all my US patents and titles. What I don't list is the equivalent patents in other countries, but I know of some people who do. I list my patents along with my other publications as sort of an addendum to my CV.

What I think you will find even more interesting is that searching patents on Google Patents (and evidently the USPTO site for you) doesn't always find all the patents with your name listed as an inventor. At least for me Google Patents won't list them all. I much prefer The Lens which always lists all my patents. For instance I searched on your name as inventor and found 8 issued patents. They all have the same assignee so I'm pretty sure they’re yours. Not all of them share a title and on at least one patent you are listed as the first inventor (not that that matters). You now seem twice as impressive to me...