"The U.S. patent, which was awarded June 27, is extremely general, and would seem to cover the activities of many other sites, especially those like LinkedIn that allow people to connect within a certain number of degrees of separation," the article says.
Asked whether Friendster would sue, President Kent Lindstrom said "It's way too early to say...We'll do what we can to protect our intellectual property."
After a failed attempt to get bought, Friendster got some capital from investor Kleiner Perkins earlier this year to get it out of debt.