Pioneering social-networking site Friendster may soon be making enemies rather than friends as a result of a patent it was recently awarded.

Friendster last month received a patent related to searching for people online based on their relationships, and expects to soon be awarded another one, related to uploading user-generated content; it's now thinking about what it wants to do with what may be formidable weapons that have been handed it, writes the Wall Street Journal.

Friendster, struggling as relative newbies Facebook and MySpace have stolen its thunder, is attempting to reinvent itself, and the social-networking-related patents could come in handy. "We want to protect our intellectual property," Kent Lindstrom, Friendster's president, is quoted as saying. Lawyers are apparently urging "taking people out from a litigation standpoint," but for now he's talking about patent-licensing fees.

Some say there is prior art, like that of now deep-sixed Six Degrees; and others, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is running a campaign against what it says are illegitimate patents, say there's nothing novel about what Friendstr says it has invented.