Widow of Dutch programmer sues Facebook over ‘like’ button

Washington, DC, United States (4E) – A widow of a Dutch programmer named Joannes Jozef Everardus van Der Meer has sued American social networking site Facebook for using patented technologies.

The patent-holding company, Rembrandt Social Media, alleged the success of Facebook mainly based on late Van Der Meer’s two patents, which the latter site used without his permission.

It has filed a lawsuit against Facebook in Virginia’s federal court, said Rembrandt Social Media’s lawyer Tom Melsheimer.

“We believe Rembrandt’s patents represent an important foundation of social media as we know it, and we expect a judge and jury to reach the same conclusion based on the evidence,” said legal firm Fish and Richardson’s Melsheimer, who represents the patent holder.

Facebook remained silent on the lawsuit and its claims. ‘Like’ button is one of the features that Facebook used without permission.

According to legal papers filed by Fish and Richardson, Van Der Meer earned the patents in 1998 nearly five years before Facebook’s birth. Following Van Der Meer’s death in 2004, Rembrandt owns the patents.

The patents had been earned to build a fledgling social network called Surfbook where people could share information with family and friends, adding that it first introduced the button ‘like’ for any user approvals of any information.

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