A Step Ahead: Facebook buys IBM patents

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook confirmed Friday that it has added a trove of IBM patents to its arsenal on an increasingly lawsuit-strewn technology battlefield. “I can confirm that there was a purchase but I don’t have any other details to share,” Facebook spokesman Larry Yu said. Acquisition of the patents came as California-based Facebook prepared for an initial public offering and as Internet titans increasingly battle in courts as well as in marketplaces. Reports that Facebook bought 750 software and networking patents from IBM surfaced less than two weeks after Yahoo! accused the firm of infringing on 10 of its patents. Yahoo!, in a lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California on March 12, accused Facebook of infringing on patents in several areas including advertising, privacy and messaging. In the lawsuit, the company asked the court to order Facebook to halt its alleged patent-infringing activities and to assess unspecified damages.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2012.