Summary:
In February 2004, when thefacebook.com was launched, Aaron Greenspan claimed that Zuckerberg was copying aspects of his work from a web portal called houseSYSTEM which he had launched in August 2003. In an e-mail message, circulated widely to Harvard students on September 19, 2003 Greenspan described the newest feature of houseSYSTEM as "the Face Book", an online system for quickly locating other students. Four months later, Mr. Zuckerberg started his own site originally named "thefacebook.com."
Allegations:
- Starting in August 2003, Think Computer Corporation and Facebook's CEO and and founder Aaron Greenspan released houseSYSTEM - a web based student portal designed to make life easier for students, faculty, and alumni. Think's system contained a number of features, including a course calendar, student marketplace, email service and many others. Many of these features were later incorporated into Facebook Inc. with the except of profiles which were added by Zuckerberg in February 2004.
- On January 10, 2006 Greenspan's company filed a petition to cancel the "Facebook" trademark, which included claims of prior use and fraud by Facebook Inc. against the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Greenspan decided to settle things amicably with Zuckerberg's company saying, “I am glad that my contributions have been recognised by Facebook. Mark has built a tremendous company at Facebook, and I wish them continued success in the future.”
Defence:
- Initially, Zuckerberg was described as "saying through a spokeswoman that he was not sure how to respond" to Greenspan's allegations that many features on Facebook had been copied from Greenspan's software houseSYSTEM.
- Facebook, Inc. agreed to a formal settlement with Greenspan in late May 2009 and issued a press release but the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.