ConnectU claims that Mark Zuckerberg worked breifly for ConnectU, but decided to start his own company soon after. That wouldn't normally be a problem -- business relationships end all the time -- but the company Zuckerberg founded, Facebook, stands accused of stealing source code, design and even the business plan of ConnectU.
Zuckerberg, armed with big pockets and tons of lawyers, hopes to quash the lawsuit once and for all on July 25th, the date of the next scheduled hearing. However, if unsuccessful, this could be the beginning of a lengthy and all-important legal battle for the social networking butterfly.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-20-2007 @ 12:22PM
Victor Agreda, Jr. said...
ConnectU suffers from the same problem as Facebook: they are ageist. I'm an old fart at just over 30, apparently, and since I didn't keep checking my VAX email account for the past decade, I can't join my alma mater online. I guess it's ok, since none of my peers would be there anyway. It's pretty sad when your fallback is MySpace!
There's no easy answer for this, but surely there's a way to register for your school without having to have a damn edu email origination? Can I get a note from my mommy or something, or show my diploma? They are missing out on tens of thousands (I went to my state's largest public university) of CUSTOMERS!
If I were a VC I wouldn't take an appointment with either of these bozos.
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7-20-2007 @ 5:07PM
Max said...
Normally you'd attribute this to lawsuits similar to those by patent trolls. But this one likely has merit -- the suit was filed a LONG time ago, and ConnectU has been complaining about this since Facebook Day 1 (i.e. before any hype -- if we can remember that far back). It's obvious the FB will have to pay these guys some serious cash (and perhaps equity). Good to see, actually.
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7-23-2007 @ 11:17AM
neko said...
there's a good defence Zuckerberg could use. that's exactly what bill gates did. worked for a company when it was starting up, leaves, starts a rival company using ideas/code he 'salvaged' from the first company, and arguably gets more popular than the startup he worked for. he'll be fine.
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