Facebook is going after Yahoo for 10 instances of patent infringement
Yahoo may have thrown the first stone, but Facebook could have the last word in the patent war that has erupted between the two this year.
Facebook filed a counterclaim against Yahoo in a San Francisco federal court yesterday in response to Yahoo's initial patent claims against the social networking giant.
Back in February, Yahoo went after Facebook seeking licensing fees for the use of its technology patents. According to Yahoo, Facebook's messaging service, privacy controls, news feed and advertisements infringe on about 10 to 20 of Yahoo's patents.
Now, Facebook is coming back at Yahoo with claims that the Web search company has infringed 10 of Facebook patents.
Five of these patent infringements Facebook is referring to are related to Yahoo's advertising. One has to do with a method for tagging media, which Facebook said it invented itself, and the rest are related to Yahoo's Flickr photo sharing service, which has a similar way of providing news feeds, user connectivity and photo tagging as Facebook.
"While we are asserting patent claims of our own, we do so in response to Yahoo's short-sighted decision to attack one of its partners and prioritize litigation over innovation," said Ted Ullyot, Facebook General Counsel.
Yahoo may have picked a bigger fight than it was prepared for, as the internet search company prepares for an initial public offering that has the potential to value at the company up to $100 billion. Yahoo has also fell on some hard times recently with consistent decreases in revenue.
However, Yahoo said in previous reports that it was prepared to take Facebook to court at any time regarding the patent infringements.
"Yahoo has a responsibility to its shareholders, employees and other stakeholders to protect its intellectual property," said Yahoo.
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