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Facebook Sues German Site StudiVZ
Techtree News Staff, Jul 21, 2008 1545 hrs ISTFacebook accuses German social networking site, StudiVZ, of plagiarizing Facebook's features, feel and services.
On Friday last week, Facebook sued a German company StudiVZ claiming intellectual property infringement. Facebook has accused the company of running a complete knock-off of the social networking site, including the features, feel and services.
The complaint filed in a California federal court, says that differences between the two sites are nominal, such as replacing Facebook's blue colour scheme with red. Facebook is seeking to end StudiVZ's illegal activity lest Facebook's own reputation be harmed by association.
On the other hand, StudiVZ says that they haven't received the lawsuit complaint yet, but have filed a declaratory judgment in the District Court in Stuttgart, Germany to nullify Facebook's claims.
The German company has gone to the extent of saying that Facebook is laying claim to an international monopoly over social networking sites, when the facts do not support it. It claims to have 10 million users and calls itself the most successful social networking site in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, reports Washington Post.
According to studiVZ, Facebook has failed in the German market, despite earnest efforts. Therefore, it's now seeking to obstruct them through court action. If this is true, Facebook's strategy appears to be, "If you can't beat them, sue them".
However, StudiVZ is not the only company using a clone of Facebook. At least 9 other Facebook clones have been documented before. Check the list of clones here.
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