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Facebook is asking a US court to shut down German
website StudiVZ on the grounds it is an illegal "knockoff"
of the online social networking superstar.
Facebook wants a federal court in
the heart of Silicon Valley to order StudiVZ to stop mimicking the
Northern California firm's website and hand over any money it has
made.
"This is a case to stop
StudiVZ from operating a knockoff of Facebook," Facebook
lawyers said in a civil suit filed July 18 in US District Court in
San Jose.
"A great part, if not all,
of StudiVZ's success is due to copying and misuse of Facebook's
intellectual property."
StudiVZ launched the year after
then Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg brought Facebook to
life in 2004 as a way to stay connected with the lives of college
friends.
The German website's name is
reportedly a play on a word in that language meaning "students
directory."
StudiVZ is gaining popularity and
its creators have started localized versions in other parts of
Europe, according to the lawsuit.
Facebook is demanding a jury
trial and argues that StudiVZ should be shut down and be made to pay
an unspecified amount of cash in damages.
-- Tech Times Online
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