Yahoo! Inc. v. Facebook Inc., Dkt. 12-cv-01212 (N.D. Cal. March 12, 2012). [Complaint]
Yahoo filed suit against Facebook on March 12, 2012 alleging infringement of 10 patents. The patents fall into five categories (1)  online advertising, (2) user privacy, (3) customized content for users, (4) social networking, and (5) user to user communications through messaging.
The patents corresponding to each category include (1) U.S. Patent No. 6,907,556; 7,100,111; 7,373,599; 7,668,861 (2) 7,3736,590; 7,599,935 (3) 7,373,509; Â 5,983,227 (4) 7,747,648 and (5) 7,406,501.
The complaint alleges that Facebook copied technology developed by Yahoo. The complaint quotes Mark Zuckerberg as saying “The thing that’s been really surprising about the evolution of Facebook is–I think then and I think now–that if we didn’t do this someone else would have done it . . . Getting there first is not what it’s all about.” In other words, Yahoo asserts that Facebook admits that it copies the technology of others, because they were not first to develop the technology.