Call it a case of Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0. The controversy stems from development work done at Ikimbo, one of the original Internet companies. The company was developing an enterprise-level groupware application framework. In a 2001 position paper, Ikimbo described itself as “developing a real-time platform for accelerating business communications across the value-chain.” Ikimbo closed down in 2004, but it left behind a patent, applied for in 2000 by the inventors and subsequently issued by the U.S. Patent Office 2003, that became the property of Cross Atlantic Capital Partners, a venture capital management firm based in Radnor, Pa. The patent, entitled “System for creating a community of users with common interests to interact in,” was a continuation of another patent issued in 1998 to the inventors. Cross Atlantic contends that the patent was issued prior to development of the now-popular Facebook Web site—a poster child of the Web 2.0 era—which uses the same technology and which went live on Feb. 4, 2004. Cross Atlantic filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, claiming that Facebook is in violation of that patent. Cross Atlantic is seeking an injunction, royalties and punitive damages.

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 12:04:37 am into the following categories: In The News

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