Yahoo! Sues Facebook for violating ten patents

SAN FRANCISCO, 13 (Reuters / EP) The company Yahoo! sued yesterday to Facebook for violating 10 patents that include methods and systems for Internet advertising, in which is the first major legal battle between the two tech giants.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, highlights a significant increase in patent litigation that has already reached the industries of 'smartphones' and 'tablets', as well as technology giants like Apple, Microsoft and Motorola Mobility Holdings. Yahoo! demand follows the announcement of plans to launch a Facebook IPO (IPO) that could give the company a value of around 100,000 million (75,970 million euros).

The spokesman for Facebook , Jonathan Thaw, said the social network has knowledge of the demand through the media. "We are disappointed that Yahoo! , a business partner of Facebook a long time and a company that has been substantially benefited from its partnership with Facebook, has decided to appeal to the courts, "he said.

In an emailed statement, Yahoo! said it is confident he will prevail in court. "Unfortunately, the matter remains unresolved with Facebook, and we are forced to seek redress in federal court," the company said in a statement. Yahoo! said in late February that it was demanding payment of license fees to Facebook for its patents, and that other companies had already agreed to such licensing agreements.

In the lawsuit, Yahoo! said that Facebook was considered "one of the worst performing sites for advertising" before adapting the ideas of Yahoo!. "Mr. Mark Zuckerberg , founder and CEO of Facebook, agreed that the design of Facebook is not new and is based on the ideas of others, "the suit said.

Several companies involved in social networking sites including Facebook, have experienced an increase in patent claims against them as they progress in their process to go public. However, most of these lawsuits have been filed by "patent accumulators" that buy intellectual property rights to extract juice through licensing agreements and so far, none had been submitted by a technology company as important as Yahoo!