One of the biggest social media sites in the online community, Facebook, is being sued by a Dutch computer programmer.
Rembrandt Social Media claims that the use of the “like” button was patented more than 15 years ago in 1998, a good five years before Facebook emerged and took the world by storm.
According to the lawsuit papers, the “like” button “bears a remarkable resemblance, both in terms of its functionality and technical implementation” to a patented concept by Dutch computer programmer Joannes Jozef Evardus van der Meer. Van der Meer died in June 2004 and the lawsuit is being pursued by the company that now owns the patent, Rembrant Social Media, LP.
Surfbook
Before Facebook, there was Surfbook, which is a social diary that was the brainchild of van der Meer. This was a few years before the time of Facebook. One of the key features of Surfbook is the ability of users to “like” the content posted by another user.
Surfbook.com was a registered website, owned by Mr. van der Meer’s company Aduna. Unfortunately, he died a premature death.
Other features allegedly infringed
According to the lawsuit papers, Facebook had infringed on two patents of the deceased computer programmer, which became instrumental in the success of the social media giant.
Aside from the “like” or “share” button, the lawsuit also claims that it is van der Meer that holds the credit for using “timeline,” “newsfeed” and “wall” on the Surfbook site, which Facebook allegedly copied.
The first patent
The first parent application is for a “web page diary,” which is under US Patent No. 6,415,316 that was issued July 2, 2002. This enabled users to gather information about users and allowed them to include content from a third party. The web page diary also allowed users to place information in a chronological manner, as well as share the provided information.
The second patent
The second patent is US Patent No. 6,289,362 and this was issued as early as September 11, 2001. This feature enabled users to transfer content from another site to add to their personal web diary.
These two concepts are now common to many social media sites. However, the lawsuit only named Facebook and one other social networking site.
AddThis
If misery loves company, Facebook isn’t the only company being sued by the Dutch group. AddThis is another company that is being accused by Rembrandt Social Media, LP of using the patent without first getting permission to do so.
The lawsuit was filed last February 5, in a federal court in Virginia. The suit did not specify any specific damages.
Facebook first appeared in Harvard University and is now one of the most popular websites in the planet. One in seven people around the globe is a Facebook users.
Facebook has not released a comment about the lawsuit at this time.
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