HOT STUFF! Facebook faces legal action for fraud

26/07/2007

The long-running legal dispute over the origins of social networking website Facebook.com continues. The Boston district court has deferred making a decision until 8 August, giving extra time to the claimants to find evidence to support their claim.

The three founders of the Harvard networking site, ConnectU, are claiming against the founder of Facebook.com, Mark Zuckerberg. Brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra, allege that Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook.com while designing software for ConnectU. They claim that they asked Mark to complete software and database work on the site in November 2003 but that he repeatedly stalled and launched Facebook in 2004, a few months before ConnectU went online, using their ideas. They have been unable to provide details of any contract with Mark but allege fraud, copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. They are asking for Facebook to be shut down and for the company together with its assets to be transferred to them. In addition, they are claiming damages.

Facebook now has approximately 31 million users, compared with about 70,000 users for ConnectU. It is said to have rejected a $1 bn takeover offer from Yahoo last year and there are rumours that Microsoft is willing to pay up to $6 bn for the site.

Contact: maustin@city-law.net

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