Google PageRank Patent May Go Poof

Patent office changes views, could impact Google and others

By WebProNews Staff · July 22, 2008 · 29 Comments

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New criteria for restricting the scope of what the US Patent Office considers patent-worthy poses a threat to numerous software patents, including Google’s famed PageRank.

Google climbed past a morass of ineffective search engines when it arrived on the Internet. Its devotion to the most relevant possible solution for a given query quickly made it the de facto search choice as millions of people shifted their browsing habits from walled garden content to the broader World Wide Web.

The essential and much-discussed PageRank technology holds a patent, a common legal protection sought by software developers small and large. Some have claimed software patents affect far too broad a scope of potential innovation, leading to lawsuits where a patent owner claims damages by multiple companies.

Those on the losing end of such suits end up paying for what they argue are obvious and non-original concepts. That could change with a shift in the way the USPTO looks at software patents, the Patently-O blog on patent law said.

A series of cases may remake the software industry, all the way to the top where Google and other companies reside:

In the most recent of these three (cases)—the currently pending en banc Bilski appeal—the Office takes the position that process inventions generally are unpatentable unless they "result in a physical transformation of an article" or are "tied to a particular machine."

Patently-O sees Google’s PageRank, the patent for which is owned by Stanford University, as failing the first part of the test, as generating scores isn’t a physical transformation. The second part proves troubling given recent decisions made by the USPTO in a couple of other cases, not only for PageRank but other Google patents too.

"Google might have thought that the patent system would surely protect new technological developments that are highly creative and socially valuable. The PTO’s new position proves that view mistaken," Patently-O said.

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There are 29 Comments. Add Yours.

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Dale
July 22, 2008 at 11:14 am

It is a "transformation", just not physical. USPTO needs to join the 21st century.

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Justin Goldberg
July 22, 2008 at 12:10 pm

Google has moved quite a bit beyond pagerank. It’s not 1997 anymore. Sheesh. And google hasn’t patented the 100 or 200 page quality indicators, which are the real secrets. If they did we would all know what they are.

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Joe
July 22, 2008 at 12:24 pm

Once you possess the vast market power that google holds, intellectual properties become less important in holding competitors at bay. Yahoo search results substantially mimic google in any event. The two search engines both employ link counting. They tweak it with other factors (page quality indicators from the referring page and the receiving page itself). Bottom line: even if Google’s patent goes "poof", it will be like a tree falling in an empty forest. No one will hear it. A non-event.

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Link Building
July 22, 2008 at 1:11 pm

Google gives a very little or no importance to page rank. so it would not matter much to google as it already moved beyond page rank.

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Kameir
July 22, 2008 at 1:19 pm

Patents are a game for lawyers. If you have no intention of using it you do not deserve protection. If you put it ino action – and it is any good – you should naturally reap the benefits from it, regardless of any (formal) patent.

Given the lenght of the patent process it is mostly useless for cutting edge solutions.

When XEROX developed a graphic user interface ("Windows") Apple stole it first and then Microsoft. It was probably one of three most important development of the computer area. Had it been sitting in a drawer at XEROX who knows if home computers would have ever taken on the way they did.

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SEO leeds
July 22, 2008 at 2:00 pm

The thing with page rank is, not how many people are in the know that it doesn’t mean very much, or the fact that it doesn’t mean very much – its the influence it has upon the millions of website owners who are not in the know and who attribute a value to it – has to be worth keeping hold of!

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sajjad
July 22, 2008 at 2:16 pm

It will hardly make a difference to google at this stage.

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Guest
July 22, 2008 at 3:19 pm

well, it’s good that Google kicks kicked about once in a while.

I just can’t understand how they have been blatantly infringing on people’s copyrights all this time. I think yeah, sociallly it’s a wonderful tool, but they are stealing others’ creations. There’s just no other way to look at it.

Also, it’s almost impossible to come up with something without them announcing something to squash the attempts. They have all kinds of "shelved" stuff to ward off would-be inventors.

Google has gone way past simple search and has infiltrated every facet of our society and it turning into another Microsoft but worst in my opinion.

Soon we’ll be wearing Gooogle of the Loom underwear instead of Fruit of the Loom. I got that scare already , thank goodness it was just blurry morning eyesight. haha

PLUS this invention here is unsettling to me: They have a way to LISTEN to conversations and make search tags based on conversations in the room you are in. FREAKY!!

Another McCandless Corp. in the Freejack movie in the making!!

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070715-google-patent-envisions-using-ambient-audio-from-tv-for-searches-ads.html

Go ahead an look on th egovernment site, they are serious about it.

I don’t want Google suggesting a marriage counseling service, and suggesting some local clothing stores if my wife yells about not getting that new dress, you know? I can just see it now…

Google Counselor (Beta) coming soon to a screen near you!

Hmm.. me thinks I know why they want to get their hands on the mobile radio spectrum so bad now…

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  RoyD.
  July 22, 2008 at 10:53 pm
  
  "Soon we’ll be wearing Gooogle of the Loom underwear instead of Fruit of the Loom. I got that scare already , thank goodness it was just blurry morning eyesight. haha"
  
  LOL! That had me LMAOF! I know what you mean. We are under attack by Google! I hope they retroactively invalidate all software patents. The world will be better without software patents. It’s getting ridiculous already.
  
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seo syracuse
July 22, 2008 at 4:57 pm

As noted above page rank as a unit of measurement for rankings means little, there is some forward thinking that crawl rate and cache date holds more value when predicting a sites rankings.

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Amiya Sarkar
July 22, 2008 at 5:06 pm

It is still an important metric of a site’s standing, in terms of relevancy. Alexa rank on the other hand provides info on the site’s visitor numbers. Patended or not I wouldn’t mind seeing that green bar on the browser.

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Peter (IMC)
July 22, 2008 at 5:27 pm

Let’s see,.. you spend lots of time and money on developping something that didn’t exist before, (isn’t that what an invention is?) so you can say you own that what you created on your own. And then you´re not allowed to protect your own property?

That makes no sense what so ever!

"Some have claimed software patents affect far too broad a scope of potential innovation"

This quote couldn’t be more wrong. If everybody is allowed to copy stuff that already exists then they´re not going to bother inventing a new and better way.

I could agree with the idea that being allowed to protect even a different way to tie your shoes is going too far. But going from one extreme into the other isn’t helping anybody.

I can already see the next search engine claiming to be better than Google because they use Google technology with a twist. A lot of investors are going to loose a lot of money on these things.

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Ken
July 22, 2008 at 6:14 pm

I have mixed feelings about giving patents to software, I tend to believe that they the creators of software should only have copywrite protection, but is that enough? What about royalities due them and lawsuits on infringers?

It is complicated.

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Business networking
July 22, 2008 at 8:35 pm

So what does that mean for Google? does this mean that if their pagerank patent is not valid, that microsoft could use a few billion dollars to copy the algorithym and market it to compete directly with Google?

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busbyseo
July 22, 2008 at 10:40 pm

I think Google PageRank or a derivative of it , is already in use by the other major search engines , so relax of patent will not make much difference , plus google has evolved way past what is on the record , take more that that to bother them , greatly

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toto
July 22, 2008 at 11:19 pm

So Ebay BUY IT NOW and AUCTION patented processes are invalid?

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Maroun TERS
July 23, 2008 at 2:50 am

Reading such news made me feel unconfortable towards the whole story concept..

As inventors, we try all our best to create newbies to the online/offline society, and now we have to reconsider our invention not to be simply taken just for the unpatent new formula..

some of above comments are simply out of jealousy.. (especially when someone is afraid to wear google of loom underwear..!).. well, and not to defend google, but simply every one is free to use or not use the google inventions and services.. being a simply-then-elaborated search engine, or even counselor.. no one oblige to use their services, nor other mega web-services..

generating such new decision in patent affairs, should be reconsidered many times, as simply, DUMBS-with-BILLIONS-DOLLARS can invade our world, our online, by simply buying the scripts and pretending they are the inventors..! who better then control the online..!

and for a mark, the MAIN SUBJECT TITLE of this report-document deviate the eyes on else matters, and emphasize on GOOGLE PAGERANK PATENT only.. while such USPTO decision means for all..!

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Gareth - Creare Web Design
July 23, 2008 at 3:42 am

I really don’t see this affecting google at all.

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Bonic
July 23, 2008 at 7:32 am

music, video, galleries, news, lyrics, guestbook, discography, multimedia, interviews, pictures, contacts, info, information, shik, duet, duo, design, foto, photography, concerts, stars, bulgarian singers, pop music, albums, music idol, toto cutugno, shic

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?????
July 23, 2008 at 10:34 am

i think you are right,

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Parag
July 23, 2008 at 11:46 pm

OBJECTIVELY, this is bad for overall progress of the society as inventors will not be encouraged to work harder, thereby coming up with new concepts, that benefit the society.

A bad message going against one of the basic purposes of intellectual property protection.

Why everyone here is talking about Google and not see the larger picture, which has subjectively benefitted them already (google search) other than those who may lose (google stock holders)

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Paul
July 24, 2008 at 12:03 am

Page Rank will change in the near future. With Google heading for real, honest, original content as the primary focus, pagerank will slip into the background and a new term you need to worry about will emerge.

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Guest
July 24, 2008 at 8:30 am

all i can say on this subject is the system being used needs to be evaluated for fairness and to have a broarder evaluation on the periferals used to create the system and that patents pending untill the track record has proven the root of expression for the mathmatical equasion used to controll the interactive data base

have a good day

Guest

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SAL
July 25, 2008 at 11:28 pm

They won’t miss a step.

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Lighting
August 18, 2008 at 3:47 pm

I think page rank has lost its relevence

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?????
October 19, 2008 at 10:33 am

It will hardly make a difference to google at this stage.

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Encontre Fornecedores e novos clientes E-marketplace
December 11, 2008 at 3:01 pm

Pagerank is losing “wheight”… Now what matters is Trustrank!

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Taylor
March 21, 2009 at 4:57 pm

Either way, I am sure that Google will be fine Lol. Seriously. It’s google and they rule the internet.

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Guest
March 30, 2009 at 11:10 am

PageRank is dying and Google know it, it was designed to create a Buzz among webmasters. Now people know that it

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