14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this year, Facebook was ordered to reveal its source code to the mostly unknown Leader Technologies, on claims of patent infringement on part of the social network. A Delaware District Court ruled that Facebook was to make the site's full source code available to the plaintiff, a decision that the social network opposed at the time. Its objections have been rejected and the company has until September 15 to comply with the request.
Real Geek found that the court denied Facebook's objections in a court document dated September 4 and maintains its initial ruling, with the social network having to reveal the code under strict conditions, believing that the company will not be harmed, as it claims, by doing so. Facebook also wanted Leader to reveal what products it offered that used the patent in question, but the court believed this to be unnecessary. Leader, though, still has to produce some information about its products.
Facebook isn't happy with the new ruling, but will comply with the request. “It is extremely common in software intellectual property cases for there to be some form of source code review. In this case, the review is subject to a very restrictive protective order, which limits what they see and what they can do with any information they glean from review. Further, plaintiffs’ do not receive the code but merely get to inspect it,” the company said in a statement.
The actual inspection of the code will be done under some strict conditions. Leader lawyers and experts will get to review the code in a secure room without Internet access and on a secure computer. Facebook gets to choose the location and Leader's representatives will not be able to take any kind of notes. Leader will have to supply Facebook with the list of modules it wants to inspect no later that September 22, and Facebook has to provide the technical documents by September 29. The company has until October 15 to review the documents and the source code.