Facebook and Yahoo! are in patent war truce talks
that could end a legal battle between the companies, according to court
documents available online Wednesday.
"The parties are currently engaged in
settlement negotiations to resolve this dispute," attorney Kevin Smith
of the Yahoo! legal team said in a filing asking a federal court to
allow the companies more time to negotiate.
"The parties believe that a further extension will facilitate settlement."
In March, Yahoo! filed suit against Facebook
in US District Court in San Francisco, accusing the social networking
giant of infringing on 10 patents.
The Yahoo! suit accused Facebook of
infringing on patents in areas including advertising, privacy and
messaging and contended that Facebook's growth "has been based in large
part on Facebook's use of Yahoo!'s patented technology."
Yahoo! asked the court to order Facebook to halt its alleged patent-infringing activities and to assess unspecified damages.
Facebook, which is based in the northern California city of Menlo Park, denied violating any valid Yahoo! patents.
Facebook went on to accuse Yahoo! of
infringing on its patented technology in a broad array of products
including online venues for news, games, cars, travel and photo-sharing
service Flickr.
The fight between Yahoo! and Facebook heated
up in April with the floundering Internet pioneer accusing the social
network star of buying patents just to retaliate in court.
Yahoo! also added a few more patents to the list of intellectual property it claims Facebook is abusing.
"We remain perplexed by Yahoo's erratic actions," a Facebook spokesman told AFP at the time.
"We disagree with these latest claims and we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously."
Patent suits are a frequent occurrence among
smartphone and tablet computer makers, and the world's best known brands
are ensnared in a complex web of legal claims, but such suits are
relatively rare among social media companies.
© 2012 AFP
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© 2012 AFP
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