The patent wars: Yahoo vs. Facebook

Yahoo homepage
The Yahoo homepage is seen on a computer screen in Washington on October 19, 2010.
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

Facebook is stepping up its patent dispute with Yahoo by filing its own lawsuit against the struggling Internet icon.

Facebook's lawsuit Tuesday comes just weeks after Yahoo claimed that Facebook violated 10 patents covering advertising, privacy controls and social networking. Facebook denies Yahoo's allegation and now claims that Yahoo violated 10 of its patents covering photo tagging, advertising, online recommendations and more. Facebook says it has been "irreparably harmed" by Yahoo's infringement. To bolster its defense, Facebook bought 750 patents from IBM.

The buying and selling of patents is nothing new in the tech world. Some companies specialize and profit big from "trolling" for patents and suing over the smallest infringement.

Why should you care? Because it affects the way some of our tech-savviest companies do business and some contend that it stifles innovation.

James Bessen, director of Research on Innovation, and Bloomberg patent reporter Susan Decker will join The Daily Circuit Wednesday to talk about the patent war.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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