Facebook Sued Over Use of Like Button

Social website, Facebook is facing a patent lawsuit over its use of the Like Button on its webservices.
A patent holding company, Rembrandt Social Media says that it is acting for the estate of a dead Dutch programmer, Joannes Jozef Everardus van Der Meer who secured a patent on the concept of a Like button in 1998.
The patent predates the creation of Facebook by five years, and the lawsuit claims that Facebook has cited the patent in its own patent applications – implying that it knows it is infringing it.
Rembrandt Social Media is being represented by the law firm, Fish and Richardson who put out a press release about their latest lawsuit
“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,” says attorney Tom Melsheimer, counsel for Rembrandt and managing principal of Fish & Richardson’s Dallas office.
The lawsuit also names the unrelated firm, Add This as a defendant.