{
  "patent_number": "US RE45254",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Servers Automatically Connect Users Based on Mutual Friend Lists",
  "original_title": "USRE45254E1 - Implicit population of access control lists",
  "summary": "A method for servers to automatically create secure communication links between two users only if they have both added each other to their respective contact or buddy lists.",
  "what_it_does": "The patent describes a server-side process that checks if two users have mutually added each other to their contact lists. When both users have the other person on their list, the server interprets this as an implicit trust relationship. Based on this mutual confirmation, the server automatically enables a direct communication pathway, such as a peer-to-peer connection or a virtual private network (VPN), between their devices. This removes the need for manual approval or complex configuration every time two known contacts want to communicate securely.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover connections where only one user has added the other to their list.",
    "Does not cover manual connection requests that require explicit user-to-user permission prompts.",
    "Does not cover systems that rely on third-party identity verification rather than user-maintained lists.",
    "Does not cover local device-to-device discovery that occurs without server-side verification of contact lists."
  ],
  "filed": "2013-05-31",
  "granted": "2014-11-18",
  "expires": null,
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Facebook Inc",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/facebook-inc",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "James A. Roskind",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/james-a-roskind"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 7,
  "tags": [
    "software",
    "telecommunications",
    "ai_ml"
  ],
  "abstract": "Communication applications may include lists of users with which a user of the application communicates. If two users of a communications application each include the other user on their user lists, an implicit trust may be established between the users. For example, if user A includes user B in her list and user B includes user A in his list, then it may be determined that each user knows and/or trusts the other user. As a result, a connection or communications pathway may be automatically created between the client devices of the users to facilitate communications between the users based on the implicit trust.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/RE45254/google-docs",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/RE45254/google-docs/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/USRE45254",
  "relatedPatents": []
}