{"id":13293,"date":"2024-01-07T05:05:11","date_gmt":"2024-01-07T04:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ceoinfluencers.com\/?p=13293"},"modified":"2024-01-07T05:05:11","modified_gmt":"2024-01-07T04:05:11","slug":"who-sued-mark-zuckerberg-over-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ceoinfluencers.com\/who-sued-mark-zuckerberg-over-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Sued Mark Zuckerberg Over Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, was sued for alleged copyright infringement in March 2011 by two brothers, Paul Ceglia and Paul F. Allen. Ceglia alleged that he and Zuckerberg had entered into a contract in April 2003 in which Zuckerberg agreed to create a business website on Ceglia’s behalf. In exchange, Ceglia would get a 50% stake in the website, which was eventually named Facebook. Allen, meanwhile, sued Zuckerberg for violating the terms of a non-disclosure agreement and alleged that Zuckerberg had a series of contractual obligations that he had failed to meet.<\/p>\n

At the heart of Ceglia’s argument was that his contract with Zuckerberg constituted an ownership stake in the company. Allen’s case, meanwhile, alleged that Zuckerberg had violated a 2010 non-disclosure agreement that Allen had signed when he licensed Battle button to Facebook for $100,000.<\/p>\n

Both lawsuits were thrown out by the court. Ceglia’s claims were dismissed on the grounds that there was no evidence to support his allegations and the contract he had used to support his case was partially forged. Allen’s case was dismissed as a frivolous lawsuit – the court found that the evidence presented did not support his claims.<\/p>\n

While the lawsuits themselves have been rejected by the court and no ownership claims have been proven, the cases have been used as examples to illustrate how the potentially world-altering power of the Internet can result in money-driven and potentially damaging disputes over who owns what.<\/p>\n