Facebook faces ownership suit

Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 13 July 2010 14:35

IT Industry - Strategy

The latest chapter in Facebook's woes has been opened, with a resident of New York filing a case claiming that he owns 84 percent of the social network.

According to reports, Paul Ceglia, of Wellsville, New York, filed the case on June 30 in the Allegany County Supreme Court.

He claims that in a contract signed with Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg on April 28, 2003, he agreed to design a site called "The Face Book" or "The Page Book" by the start of January the next year.

The lawsuit claims that Ceglia bought half the business and an additional one percent interest for each day until the job was completed.

Zuckerberg, it is claimed, paid $US1000 and received a half stake in the project which was completed on February 4, 34 days after it was due as per the claims. Due to this delay, the suit claims that Ceglia owns an additional 34 percent of the business.

Ceglia seeks relief in the form of monetary damages and ownership of 84 percent of Facebook.

Facebook has dismissed Ceglia's claims as frivolous and said it would fight the suit.

Zuckerberg has had to battle privacy problems with the social network this year and also claims of securities fraud from former Harvard colleagues. His ex-colleagues, Divya Narendra and brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, have a case going against him in this connection.

InterNIC shows that the domain thefacebook.com was registered on January 11, 2004. while the domain facebook.com was registered on March 29, 1997.