DomainWire has announced that the USPTO has just issued a patent to GoDaddy that covers a method of announcing a domain name announcement on a social network. U.S. patent number 8,276,057. In my view, these patents are getting ridiculous. Uneducated approval of a patent will quickly hinder the technology market. The mobile development world is already seeing the impact of this…
The '057 patent basically claims a method of setting up a link to a social network account (with some general authentication) and then, after a delay period, publishing a link to a domain on the social network.
- A method, comprising:
A) receiving from a client computer communicatively coupled to a network, by one or more server computers communicatively coupled to said network:
i) one or more authentication credentials, for a registrant of a domain name, for accessing an account on a social networking website; and
ii) a delay period after which to publish, on a web page for said account, a domain name announcement comprising:
a) an announcement of a registration of said domain name; and
b) a hyperlink to a website resolving from said domain name; and
B) responsive to an expiration of said delay period:
i) authenticating to said account, by said one or more server computers and using said one or more authentication credentials, via a social networking application programming interface; and
ii) publishing, by said one or more server computers, said domain name announcement to said web page for said account via said social networking application programming interface.
The patent application was filed on September 17, 2009. Is there prior art that predates that 2009 filing date?