San Francisco (dpa) – Yahoo filed a patent lawsuit against Facebook Monday in which the ailing internet pioneer claims that the social networking giant had illegally benefited from technologies owned by Yahoo. The lawsuit was filed in a San Jose, California, federal court, and charged that Facebook was in violation of more than 10 Yahoo patents related to advertising, privacy, customization, messaging and social networking, according to The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog. The case was filed as Facebook prepares an IPO that could value the world's leading social networking company as high as 100 billion dollars. Yahoo, in contrast, is in disarray with its advertising revenues in decline as users spend more time on Facebook and other sites owned by rivals such as Google. In the lawsuit, Yahoo claims that Facebook failed to generate significant revenues from advertising until it started using methods patented by the company. “Yahoo has invested substantial resources in research and development through the years, which has resulted in numerous patented inventions of technology that other companies have licensed,” the company said in a statement. “These technologies are the foundation of our business. Unfortunately, the matter with Facebook remains unresolved and we are compelled to seek redress in federal court.” Facebook vowed to defend itself vigorously from what it called “these puzzling actions.” “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,” Facebook said. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/6POCk Tags: Facebook, Lawsuit, Patent, Yahoo Section: Tech
