They had it coming: Facebook hits back at Yahoo

Facebook has responded to Yahoo’s 10-point patent infringement lawsuit with a counter-claim featuring 10 stern rebuttals and 10 aggressive claims of its own.

In a statement accompanying the counter-claim, Facebook general counsel Ted Ullyot says the company indicated from the outset that it would defend itself vigorously.

"While we are asserting patent claims of our own, we do so in response to Yahoo’s short-sighted decision to attack one of its partners and prioritise litigation over innovation,” Ullyot says.

Facebook certainly wasn’t impressed with the move at the time, and was always going to come down hard on Yahoo, particularly in light of the social network’s forthcoming IPO.

The new infringement claims include patents for generating a personalised news feed, providing recommendations to users, and tagging digital media.

Affected Yahoo offerings include Yahoo’s home page, its news pages, and its photo sharing service, Flickr.

The suit concludes by asking the court to dismiss Yahoo’s claim for compensation and instead order Yahoo to pay damages to Facebook.

As with Yahoo’s initial claim, the timing is pretty deliberate from Facebook, coming as Yahoo prepares staff cuts that could affect thousands of employees, according to a report in All Things Digital.

You can check out Facebook’s full counter-claim here.