James Delahunty
12 Mar 2012 23:55
Lawsuit focuses on ten patents.
Yahoo said the patents are related to methods and systems for advertising on the Internet. This is the latest case in a growing number of high-profile patent-related lawsuits in recent years, and it comes after Facebook announced plans for an initial public offering that could value the service at $100 billion.
"Unfortunately, the matter with Facebook remains unresolved and we are compelled to seek redress in federal court," Yahoo said in a statement.
Facebook staff say they learned about the lawsuit in the media. "We're disappointed that Yahoo, a longtime business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially benefited from its association with Facebook, has decided to resort to litigation," said Facebook spokesman Jonathan Thaw.
Yahoo said last month that it was seeking licensing fees from Facebook over the patents relevant to the case, and pointed out that other companies had already agreed licensing terms with Yahoo. Talks were held between both firms but quickly collapsed, leading to speculation that Yahoo would go to court.
"Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO, has conceded that the design of Facebook is not novel and is based on the ideas of others," the lawsuit reads, and states that Facebook was considered one of the worst performing sites for advertising, prior to adopting ideas from Yahoo.