Yahoo threatens Facebook over patents
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San Francisco - Yahoo has threatened Facebook with legal action for violating its patents, according to The New York Times, which said the struggling web pioneer is repeating a strategy it successfully implemented just before Google went public in 2004.
The report said that Yahoo has accused Facebook of infringing on between 10 to 20 patents related to online advertising, a sphere in which Yahoo led the web before it was eclipsed by Google and Facebook. The company is demanding that Facebook pay it licensing fees or face legal action.
The threat came just weeks before Facebook is expected to go public in what is predicted to be the biggest technology offering in US history, valuing the company at between 75 billion dollars and 100 million dollars.
According to the report, Yahoo used the same patent portfolio to sue Google in 2004, settling the matter with 2.7 million pre-IPO shares, that are now worth over 1.65 billion dollars.
"Yahoo has a responsibility to its shareholders, employees and other stakeholders to protect its intellectual property," a Yahoo spokesman said in an e-mailed statement to the Times. "We must insist that Facebook either enter into a licensing agreement or we will be compelled to move forward unilaterally to protect our rights."
Barry Schnitt, a spokesman for Facebook, said in a statement: "Yahoo contacted us the same time they called The New York Times and so we haven't had the opportunity to fully evaluate their claims."//DPA
