Yahoo is accusing Facebook of copying a range of technologies that the flagging search company invented, in a lawsuit that alleges the social media giant infringes 10 patents.
"Facebook's entire social network model, which allows users to create profiles for and connect with, among other things, persons and businesses, is based on Yahoo's patented social networking technology," Yahoo wrote in the lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Yahoo accuses Facebook of infringing patents covering technologies related to advertising, privacy, site customization, social networking and integrated communications in social networking.
Reports began surfacing a couple of weeks ago that Yahoo had approached Facebook with a request that it license the patents.
(More to follow.)
Nancy Gohring covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy's e-mail address is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com