Two weeks after being sued for patent infringement by Yahoo (YHOO), Facebook today filed its reply. It also filed counterclaims against Yahoo for allegedly breaching 10 Facebook patents, including ones that involve photo-sharing and content personalization.
“From the outset, we said we would defend ourselves vigorously against Yahoo’s lawsuit, and today we filed our answer as well as counter-claims against Yahoo for infringing ten of Facebook’s patents,” said Facebook general counsel Ted Ullyot, in a prepared statement. “While we are asserting patent claims of our own, we do so in response to Yahoo’s short-sighted decision to attack one of its partners and prioritize litigation over innovation.”
In other words, if Yahoo wants to break Silicon Valley protocol by filing patent lawsuits, then Facebook will respond in kind — but it will simultaneously decry the practice, in a transparent attempt to retain its hacker credibility.
What follows is the Facebook filing. The counterclaims begin on page 12:
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