Facebook obtained a patent this week that will likely put the famous site into conflict with other social networking sites, according to several media reports.

The patent is for providing a news feed about a user of a social network, a major news feed concept for social networking sites.

The patent, filed in August, 2006 is called Dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network.

A method for displaying a news feed in a social network environment is described. The method includes generating news items regarding activities associated with a user of a social network environment and attaching an informational link associated with at least one of the activities, to at least one of the news items, as well as limiting access to the news items to a predetermined set of viewers and assigning an order to the news items, according to the US Patent Office.

The method may further include displaying the news items in the assigned order to at least one viewing user of the predetermined set of viewers and dynamically limiting the number of news items displayed.

Facebook could explore seeking legal remedies against other social networking sites if they violate this patent.

Software Facebook Patent