Categories: Tech & Society

Facebook Being Sued By a Dead Man

Dutch programmer Joannes Jozef Everardus van Der Meer is suing Facebook over its ‘Like’ button. Well, a lot of people sue a lot of companies, so what’s the big deal you ask? Well, van Der Meer is actually dead.

He passed away in 2004, just as Facebook was beginning to take over the world. So, why is he suing now?

Van Der Meer was the founder of Surfbook, a social diary-type service where people could share stuff with friends and like things with a ‘like’ button. The lawsuit claims that Facebook “bears a remarkable resemblance, both in terms of its functionality and technical implementation, to the personal web page diary that Van Der Meer had invented years earlier.”

But the man is dead, right? Well, yes he is but his patents are still alive. Van Der Meer was awarded patents in 1998 for Surfbook which maybe include the “Like” button too.

Rembrandt Social Media, a patent-holding company, is the one that’ll be doing the suing but Van Der Meer’s widow and his colleagues will testify in the trial about the importance of his invention. Some times, people want credit for their work. And other times, patent holding companies want money for those people’s work. Even when they’re dead.

Team TechPanda

Recent Posts

Indian gaming shifts from audience to creator “given India’s mobile-first gaming capabilities”

The Indian gaming industry is sitting on an industry explosion in the near future as…

4 hours ago

Transforming modern business operations: How Microsoft 365’s AI Integration is automating HR workflows & enhancing employee experiences

In today's fast-paced business world, when employee fulfillment and efficiency are crucial, technology has become…

6 hours ago

Outbound & inbound: India attracts businesses from UK, China & US while expanding to Middle East

The Tech Panda takes a look at how India has been attracting foreign businesses from…

1 day ago

UPI value & volume surpass records in March

India’s digital payments ecosystem achieved a record high in March, with UPI transactions reaching INR24.77…

1 day ago

AI-powered digital twins, Cobots, agentic AI, physical AI & edge computing are enabling an anticipatory AI-first manufacturing ecosystem

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), ), a leader in IT services, consulting, and business…

1 day ago

Misinformation & deepfakes help weaponize AI: Should AI be as open as the internet then?

The ability for AI to spread misinformation has been reaching hair-raising lengths, another and possibly…

3 days ago