The escalating war between technology companies over intellectual property has had a number of unfortunate consequences, but perhaps none is sadder than the spectacle of an ailing Internet giant using the threat of patent litigation to extract money from an up-and-coming firm. Yet that appears to be Yahoo’s strategy, by demanding that Facebook pay it licensing fees — or else face a potentially costly patent dispute.
Yahoo says it owns patents for as many as 20 technologies that include online advertising, social networking, and messaging, according to The New York Times, which first reported the company’s threats against Facebook. Yahoo called Facebook on Monday to inform the booming social network, which could be worth $100 million after its IPO later this spring, that it currently infringes on those patents. As a result, Yahoo demanded that Facebook pay it licensing fees to cover those technologies, or face litigation.
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