Over the years, everyone has known Yahoo and Facebook to be friends in business, but Facebook has been left ‘disappointed’ by Yahoo after the social network’s long-time business partner took legal action over alleged infringement of patents. Yahoo has asked a court in San Jose, California, to stop Facebook from carrying out the activities, which cover security, advertising and messaging.
The internet giant has claimed that Facebook’s News Feed feature was directly linked to its patents, with similar breaches being made within the advertising model.
Yahoo has invested substantial resources in research and development through the years, which has resulted in numerous patented inventions of technology that other companies have licensed,’ . Unfortunately, the matter with Facebook remains unresolved and we are compelled to seek redress in federal court. – said Yahoo in a statement
Facebook then replied with the promise of defending itself against ‘puzzling actions’ from Yahoo.
‘We’re disappointed that Yahoo, a long-time business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially benefited from its association with Facebook, has decided to resort to litigation,’ the social network said in a statement.
Yahoo currently owns over 1,000 patents, while Facebook had claims on just 56 by the end of last year. The legal move comes after Facebook announced plans for a public offering, initially putting five per cent of its stock on the line to investors at a cost of around $5 billion (£3.1 billion).
