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Facebook Hit by Two More Patent Lawsuits

As companies line up to take a shot at the social networking giant

Oct 9, 2009 14:57 GMT  ·  By
Companies line up to take a shot at the social networking giant with Facebook getting hit by two more patent lawsuits
   Companies line up to take a shot at the social networking giant with Facebook getting hit by two more patent lawsuits

Facebook is no stranger to lawsuits, some frivolous, others with more weight. It's part of the territory when you get to a certain size and, with Facebook's 300 million users, there's hardly a target larger than it. If you're going to sue someone it might as well be the largest social network in the world but after you decide to sue comes the problem of finding a reason. Patent infringement seems the obvious choice; even if you've got no chance of winning the company is likely to settle for a nice sum. Facebook has seen a stream of this type of lawsuits, but now the social network isn't getting hit by one lawsuit, it’s getting two of them, on the same day.

First up is the Japanese company Mekiki, which operates the SamuraiTimes.com social network and is suing Facebook for allegedly being built with technology patented by the company. Facebook apparently infringes three patents held by the Japanese company, one issued in 2005 and the other two this year. The patents are related to a way of getting friend recommendations based on existing friends and a “human relationships registering system,” according to Bloomberg. The lawsuit was filed in a US federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.

In another, totally unrelated lawsuit filed on the exact same date, October 7, also for alleged patent infringement, publisher Phoenix Media is suing Facebook for infringing on a patent held by a subsidiary company, Tele-Publishing Inc., part of the People2People Group. The company provides personal and dating service ads to numerous newspapers and broadcasters in the US.

The company is claiming that Facebook's “computer network and method of creating and sharing a personal page” infringes on a patent it holds since 2001. The patent apparently covers a template that can be used to create a personal website and the possibility to allow other users to access that page. Facebook has responded with the standard 'the lawsuit without merit and will be fought vigorously' but hasn't commented on the lawsuit filed by the Japanese company.