The Face Book

We were glad to see the Winklevoss’ lose, finally, in their second battle against Facebook, after settling once for tens of millions of dollars and then changing their minds about how much they got. Raw ideas are cheap while good execution is critical, and rare. An unpatented idea is worth very little. But Facebook faces another suit from an alleged investor who bought half “The Face Book” for $1,000. He might be late to the party since he waited seven years to bring suit. He claims that he forgot about the deal, but with Facebook and its value broadcast across the globe you’d think he would have paid more attention, earlier, had the deal been real. Facebook claims it is a fraud, but Paul Ceglia, the Plaintiff, is back with new and improved lawyers who claim they’ve vetted his claims and who, we are sure, are on a contingency. You can read the amended complaint here. This time Ceglia has produced emails between Zuckerberg and himself. At one point Zuckerberg complains that a provision giving Ceglia an additional 1% ownership for each day delay in launching the site is unfair because Ceglia could have an ownership stake of over 80%. This battle may last a while due to the amount at issue.
-- Paul Marotta