Company News: Judge delays ruling on Facebook suit

A federal judge on Wednesday delayed ruling on whether to throw out a lawsuit filed against the founder of Facebook.com, saying he needed more information about allegations that Mark Zuckerberg stole the ideas of the creators of a rival social networking Web site.

Judge Douglas Woodlock gave ConnectU founders Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss — who are twin brothers — and Divya Narendra until Aug. 8 to flesh out their allegations against Zuckerberg, which include fraud, copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets.

The lawsuit, which also names several other founding members of Facebook, asks the court to issue an injunction against Facebook and give control of the company and its assets to ConnectU’s founders.

Facebook and ConnectU connect college students and others online. Both allow users to post profiles with pictures, biographies and other personal information and create extended networks of people at their schools or jobs or with similar interests.

ConnectU originally filed suit in September 2004, but it was dismissed on a technicality in March and immediately refiled. The lawsuit claims that in December 2002 the ConnectU founders began to develop a social networking site for the Harvard community called Harvard Connection.

In November 2003, the three asked Zuckerberg to complete software and database work on the site. They repeatedly asked him to finish before they graduated in June 2004, and Zuckerberg assured them he was working hard to complete it, the lawsuit says.

Zuckerberg launched Thefacebook.com in February 2004. ConnectU started its Web site in May of that year. By beating ConnectU to the market, Facebook gained a huge advantage, the lawsuit claims.

“Target Corp., the nation’s second-largest retailer, will start selling a Sony Blu-ray high-definition DVD player during the critical holiday shopping period and feature the player along with Blu-ray discs in store displays, dealing a potential blow to the rival HD DVD format.

The move, which the companies will formally announce Thursday, is another step in resolving a format war that has kept confused consumers from rushing to buy new DVD players until they can determine which format will dominate the market.

Target said it will sell the Sony BDP-S300 for $499 in October and display it along with Blu-ray DVDs from three studios, including Sony Corp. and The Walt Disney Co., at the ends of store aisles.