page_title: Social media
section_title: Patents of social media technology
hierarchical_section_title: Social media / Elements and function / Patents of social media technology
context_page_description: Social media are interactive computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation or sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. The variety of stand-alone and built-in social media services currently available introduces challenges of definition; however, there are some common features:
  Social media are interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications.
  User-generated content such as text posts or comments, digital photos or videos, and data generated through all online interactions, is the lifeblood of social media.
  Users create service-specific profiles for the website or app that are designed and maintained by the social media organization.
  Social media facilitate the development of online social networks by connecting a user's profile with those of other individuals or groups.
  Users usually access social media services via web-based apps on desktops and laptops, or download services that offer social media functionality to their mobile devices.
context_section_description: There has been rapid growth in the number of U.S. patent applications that cover new technologies related to social media, and the number of them that are published has been growing rapidly over the past five years. There are now over 2000 published patent applications. As many as 7000 applications may be currently on file including those that haven't been published yet. Only slightly over 100 of these applications have issued as patents, however, largely due to the multi-year backlog in examination of business method patents, patents which outline and claim new methods of doing business.
caption: Number of U.S. social network patent applications published and patents issued per year since 2003. The chart shows that the number of software applications published (the green bars) increased steadily from 2003 to 2007, and then shot up from 2008 to 2010.[46]
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