Arstechnica reports today that Friendster received a critical social networking patent recently. Remember when Amazon got that patent for one click Internet shopping? Those patent war days are back again with Friendster's announcement last Friday of a process that seems so obvious it must be in the public domain...:

The patent, which was awarded to Friendster and lists Jonathan Abrams as the inventor, outlines a system, method and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks.

The patent’s claims cover the unique system for calculating, displaying and acting upon relationships in a social
network. This invention led to the emergence of widely adopted online social networking systems.

Friendster has suffered recently at the hands of the more popular and highly funded MySpace. It filed a number of patents four years ago on the advice of its VC backers. Those applications are now paying off. One wonders how this will impact the competition.