Facebook buy 750 IBM patents to strengthen position

Facebook have bought 750 patents from IBM to help the company battle against potential patent infringement allegations. The information came from an unnamed source close to the situation who spoke to Bloomberg.

The patent purchasing is said to cover various areas such as networking and software. This acquisition will increase the Facebook portfolio which includes 56 issued patents and 503 files U.S. Patent applications.

Yahoo sued Facebook a short while ago saying they infringed patents which cover ‘critical website functions'. The Yahoo suit covers advertising, internet privacy and information sharing. They are seeking triple damages and have asked for an order to block Facebook from infringing on the 10 patents.

Facebook have obviously learned from this experience paying millions of dollars for the IBM patents. They say that they expect the intellectual property claims against them to grow, issuing a document on February 1st “We may introduce new products, including in areas where we currently do not compete, which could increase our exposure to patent and other intellectual property claims.”

Kitguru says: Many of the big players buy patents to protect against such claims. Facebook are learning quickly.

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