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Facebook hits back at Yahoo with patent counterclaim

Other News Materials 4 April 2012 12:05 (UTC +04:00)
Facebook Inc on Tuesday hit back at Yahoo Inc, filing a counterclaim against the ailing internet pioneer for allegedly violating 10 of its patents.
Facebook hits back at Yahoo with patent counterclaim

Facebook Inc on Tuesday hit back at Yahoo Inc, filing a counterclaim against the ailing internet pioneer for allegedly violating 10 of its patents, DPA reported.

The claim at a federal court in San Francisco is similar to one filed last month by Yahoo, which alleged the social networking giant Facebook had illegally benefited from patented technologies owned by Yahoo.

Facebook's counterclaim was made public on Tuesday and listed a range of Yahoo services that it says violated its intellectual property rights including the personalisation of content for users of social networks.

In reaction to the counterclaim, Yahoo said it was without merit and a "cynical attempt" to detract from the weakness of Facebook's defence against its own lawsuit.

Facebook recently bought 750 patents from IBM to aid its defence, including, according to one US media report, patents for which Yahoo holds licences.

Yahoo filed its case in mid-March as Facebook prepares an initial public offering, expected in May, 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 Inc.

In its lawsuit, Yahoo claims that Facebook failed to generate significant revenues from advertising until it started using methods patented by the company.

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