Facebook and Google hit by patent suit

The patent cases keep on rolling in and this time Facebook and Google are in the firing line.

A fellow American company, Wireless Ink, is claiming the two internet giants have infringed a mobile social networking patent it has owned since October last year.

The company runs Winksite, a mobile social networking site with around 75,000 users. Wireless ink claims it applied for a patent for it back in 2004, defined by the court filing as "management of information content for enhanced accessibility over wireless communication networks."

As well as accusing the Facebook social network as a whole, it has singled out Google Mail and the recently launched social networking tool Google Buzz.

Google is already involved in another case with Xerox, which has accused it of infringing patents on its search and integration technology.

A spokesperson from Google told IT PRO: "We are currently reviewing the complaint and have no comment at this time."

We contacted Facebook but it had not responded to our request at the time of publication.

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.