Yahoo! filed a lawsuit in a California court on Monday night accusing Facebook of infringing 10 patents held by the internet pioneer.
They cover several areas, including security, advertising and messaging.
Yahoo! asked the court in San Jose to order Facebook to halt its alleged patent-infringing activities and assess unspecified damages.
It claims that Facebook’s growth to more than 850 million users “has been based in large part on Facebook’s use of Yahoo!’s patented technology”.
Among its complaints was that Facebook’s popular ‘News Feed’ feature was “directly linked to Facebook’s infringement” of Yahoo! patents and its advertising model was based on advertising patents held by Yahoo!
Its media statement read: “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.
“These technologies are the foundation of our business that engages over 700 million monthly unique visitors and represent the spirit of innovation upon which Yahoo! is built.
“Unfortunately, the matter with Facebook remains unresolved and we are compelled to seek redress in federal court.
It continued: “We are confident that we will prevail.”
The timing of the lawsuit has not escaped attention as it was launched five weeks afterFacebook filed to go public on Wall Street with an estimated valuation of up to $100bn (£64bn).
Scott Thompson, formerly head of mobile payments firm PayPal, became chief executive at Yahoo! early this year promising urgent action to turn the company around.
In recent years it has struggled to grow profits from its huge web presence and global audience and internal rows over strategy have made headlines.
Patent actions are a frequent occurrence among smartphone and tablet computer makers but are relatively rare among social media companies.
Facebook, which was founded a decade after Yahoo!, expressed regret at the legal move.
A spokesman said: “We’re disappointed that Yahoo, a longtime business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially benefited from its association with Facebook, has decided to resort to litigation.
“We will defend ourselves vigourously against these puzzling actions.”
Source: skynews
