Yahoo and Facebook Near Patent Settlement

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - Yahoo and Facebook are in talks to settle a patent infringement dispute, court documents show.

Yahoo's attorneys with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan told the court last week that the "parties are currently engaged in settlement negotiations to resolve this dispute."

"The parties believe that a further extension will facilitate settlement," according to the June 19 declaration authored by Quinn Emanuel attorney Kevin Smith.

A day later, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White gave Yahoo extra time to counter Facebook's counterclaims and its motion to strike.

The dispute arose when Yahoo claimed that Facebook's social networking and messaging technology infringes multiple Yahoo patents.

"Yahoo!'s Advertising Patents claim methods and systems for advertising, placing advertisements on a web page in a manner according to click through rate and advertiser bid to maximize the revenue generated, and for identifying and preventing click fraud in such a pay-per-click system," the complaint states. "Facebook has infringed and continues to infringe Yahoo!'s Advertising Patents through at least its advertising platform, Facebook Ads."

Facebook privacy controls are also allegedly copied from Yahoo, which has patented "methods and systems for managing the display of social network user information so that users can preserve personal privacy," the complaint states.

Yahoo also claims that Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups infringe on its social networking patent, which "claims a method and system using a world model containing entity models for, among other things, people and businesses."

Lastly, Facebook Messages infringe the Yahoo messaging patent for "a method and system for allowing an instant messenger to exchange messages with an email user," according to the complaint.

Facebook is represented by Michael Graham Rhodes with Cooley LLP in San Francisco and others.

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