Search engine giant Google Inc. and Facebook Inc., the largest social-networking site in the world, have been slapped with a lawsuit by Wireless Ink Corp.
According to a Bloomberg report, Wireless Ink Corp., which runs the Winksite service, has claimed that Facebook Mobile and Google Buzz are infringing a patent related to ways of offering content that is accessible by mobile devices.
The patent issued in October 2009 was apparently filed back in 2004. The firm says the defendants (Google Inc. and Facebook Inc.) must have been aware of the patent, “given the time and resources they have invested in their desktop and mobile web sites as well as their strategic importance.”
Respective spokesman for Google and Facebook said that their company is reviewing the complaint and didn’t offer any immediate comments.
Wireless Ink Corp., with more than 75,000 registered users, is looking for cash compensation and a ban on further use of its invention.
This isn’t the first time Facebook has faced patent-infringement claims over its service. A Boston company called Tele-publishing Inc. sued Facebook over a patent related to a method of providing a personal page last year. Facebook was also sued by Mekiki Co., owner of a Japanese social networking site, in 2009 over patents related to ways to identify “friends” through existing contacts.
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