Yahoo goes after Facebook

Internet giant have been used in Facebook's data centres and servers, according to a regulatory filing made by Facebook, Datacenter Dynamics reports.

Facebook said Yahoo had already filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for Northern California alleging a number of Facebook product infringements, in particular 12 patents relating to advertising, social networking, privacy, customisation and messaging.

“We filed our answer with respect to this complaint and asserted counter claims that Yahoo's products infringe 10 of our patents,” Facebook said.

According to Computerworld, Yahoo claimed in a filing before a federal court that eight of the patents were acquired by Facebook in the last five months, and several were purchased after Yahoo filed the suit.

"On information and belief, many, if not all, of these patents were acquired by Facebook for purposes of retaliation against Yahoo in this case," Yahoo said in the filing.

CNET quotes a Facebook spokesperson as saying: "Yahoo's letter takes aim not just at Facebook but at open-source and energy-efficient green technologies developed and employed by countless innovative, forward-thinking companies and engineers. We're defending vigorously against Yahoo's current lawsuit, and would likewise do so against any new assertions."