Facebook sues German competitor

FACEBOOK FILED an intellectual property lawsuit against StudiVZ, a German company accused of operating a virtual replica of the social networking site.

According to the complaint filed in a California court, StudiVZ copied the “look, feel, features and services”of Facebook, including the “wall,” which allows users to leave messages for one another on their profile pages.

The lawsuit also claimed that differences between the two sites were “nominal” and noted that StudiVZ simply replaced Facebook’s “blue colour scheme with a red one” for its 10 million users. Facebook, which launched its own German language version in March, said it is seeking “to end StudiVZ’s illegal activity to ensure that users are not confused.”

Facebook, founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, recently resolved a legal battle with Connectu, a rival web site whose owners claimed Zuckerberg pinched his idea for a site that allowed Harvard students to connect to each other online. µ