The Power of Facebook

Congratulations Facebook—you have earned a patent. Potentially, you have great power: The now patent-protected idea of an updated list of friend's statuses can either be “open sourced” to the world, or used to strike fear into competitors, the clouds of lawsuit looming over their heads. One option would give you the fame and glory of “discovering” a news feed, while still maintaining healthy competition between a few other groups; the other option would potentially eliminate a major portion of fellow social media companies: you would earn a monopoly on News Feed Place and Social Mediawalk. And we all know what happens when a player gets a monopoly. If the monopoly is chosen by the general populous, it's a great thing; but, when forced upon by others, it leads to resentment. Indeed, legal muscle is a great power. But, with great power comes great responsibility. Use it wisely.

See also this link and this one.