Legal News

Achtung! Facebook Files Copyright Suit Against German Site

By Dan Slater

Emboldened, perhaps, by its big court win over rival ConnectU, Facebook, a social networking site that the Law Blog joined recently and is enjoying very much, has gone on the litigation offensive. On Friday, according to the Financial Times, the company sued StudiVZ, a German company that claims to be “the most successful social network in Germany, Austria and Switzerland”, alleging that StudiVZ copies “the look, feel, features and services” of the Facebook site.

As the FT notes, the suit comes several months after Facebook launched a German-language version.

In its complaint, Facebook accused StudiVZ of copying entire portions of the site’s design, including features such as Facebook’s distinctive “wall”, which allows users to leave messages on each other’s profile pages. Facebook reportedly claims that any differences between the two sites are “nominal,” and accuses StudiVZ of merely “replacing Facebook’s blue colour scheme with a red one.”

As for StudiVZ, which is based in Berlin and owned by German publishing company Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, it’s not backing down. On Friday, StudiVZ asked a German court in Stuttgart to declare that Facebook’s claims are without merit.

According to this Reuters report, StudiVZ claims Facebook is suing them only because Facebook has failed to transplant its success to the German market. “Their strategy appears to be: ‘If you can’t beat them, sue them,’” said Marcus Riecke, StudiVZ’s CEO.

LB Food Recommendation: If Facebook lawyers travel to Germany this summer, they should know that they’ll be there on the tail-end of spargelzeit season, or asparagus time, when a thick, white variety of the vegetable is available. We urge them to sample this precious asparagus — reportedly a national obsession — and let us know if it’s really as good as President Bush says it is.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 21, 2008 (boomark / email).