Yahoo has opened a new front in the tech patent wars, filing a lawsuit against Facebook over 10 patents in a California District Court.
ZDNet reports that Yahoo’s patents cover servers dynamically generating web pages (filed in 1997) and optimising the placement of ads on a webpage (filed in 1999). Yahoo currently holds 5,931 patents, compared to Facebook’s 226 patents.
The use of patent lawsuits is increasingly being used in the tech industry as well as a tactic to restrain competitors or companies or gain additional revenue, and while the prospect of a patent battle is a risk new start-ups increasingly face.
The news comes after Apple offered a patent amnesty to competitors Samsung and Motorola in exchange for 1% to 2.5% of net revenue for device.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COMMENTS
SmartCompany is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while it is being reviewed, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The SmartCompany comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The SmartCompany comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.