Yahoo files patent lawsuit against Facebook
Posted March 13, 2012 6:24 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NEW YORK – Yahoo is suing Facebook over patents, just weeks before the social-networking heavyweight is due to cash in with its initial public offering of stock.
Yahoo said in a court filing, Monday, that Facebook has infringed 10 of its patents covering advertising, privacy controls and social networking.
Yahoo had threatened to sue Facebook in February, insisting that the social network license its patents.
Facebook vowed to defend itself vigorously against what it called “puzzling actions” by Yahoo.
As with many patent suits, this one will likely be resolved in a settlement or licensing deal.
That said, the patent claims could cast a spotlight on Facebook’s vulnerabilities as the company tries to complete an IPO this spring.
At the end of 2011, Facebook had just 56 U.S. patents, which is a relatively small number compared with other big tech companies, and Yahoo owns more than one-thousand patents.
Yahoo made hundreds of millions of dollars from a patent settlement it reached with Google just before the Internet search leader went public in 2004.
Facebook’s IPO is expected to dwarf Google’s, valuing the social network at as much as $100-billion.
