Facebook’s legal battle with Leader technologies, has taken a new turn! The Delaware District Court judge ordered Facebook to release their source code by August 21, 2009 .

We have a new update on the case, Facebook objected on the orders to release their source code, which has just stalled this case for a while..Both Parties are sticking to their original stand, Leader say, that they need the full access to the source code and Facebook say, that Leader’s contentions are inadequate.

According to the latest public Court Order document dated 4th September 2009, Facebook objections are Denied, and Facebook has to produce its entire source code, for Leader’s review no later than September 15, 2009

Facebook Ordered To Give Leader Its Source Code -

According to the Order document, Leader has sufficiently articulated its Infringement contentions that were needed to demonstrate the relevance of this case.  Leader alleges that the entirety of Facebook’s website, particularly the “context component” and “tracking component” is infringement to Leader’s patent. Leader have also included a comprehensive detailed narration of, how Facebook website infringes each asserted claim of the ‘761 patent; citations to more than 100 screenshots, making it illustrative.

The Court Believes that Facebook understands Leader’s infringement theory and is not persuaded by Facebook’s contentions that it will be irreparably harmed by giving access to their entire source code.

Facebook has requested that they must know, whether Leader offers products that practice claims of the patent-in-suit, however judge agreed with leader that it could be overboard to ask a patentee to disclose all of their products that practice any claim of the patent-in-suit.
Moreover, Facebook has not cited authority that could support requiring a patentee to prove, through detailed claim charts. Facebook is entitled to know every Leader product or service that Leader contends practices any of the asserted claims.

The court has ordered, within ten days of the following order, that Leader shall supplement its response to Facebook and disclose all products and services.

Leader shall provide Facebook with a list of source code modules with respect to which it seeks production of technical documents no later than September 22, 2009.

Facebook shall provide Leader with all such relevant technical documents no later than September 29, 2009 and Leader shall promptly complete its review of Facebook’s Source code and technical documents to Facebook no later than October 15, 2009.

Facebook Inc. is sued again, but this time it is serious as the judge has Ordered Facebook to release their entire source code to the plaintiff, Leader Technologies on July 29th 2009. A request letter with exhibits was presented prior to this by Leader’s Legal firms that lead to this ruling. A redacted version, public version of this letter to the Honorable Leonard P. Stark can be found here

The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware and alleges that Facebook infringes Leader’s U.S. Patent No. 7,139,761 issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on November 21, 2006.

The Patent  is about a method and system for the management and storage of electronic information.  Leader seeks damages and an injunction against Facebook for its willful infringement of the ’761 Patent.

Leader was founded by Michael McKibben in 1997. Leader has filed several patent applications, dating back to 2002, that cover its technology.  “We have spent a great amount of time and effort in procuring our intellectual property,” says Michael McKibben, founder of Leader and named inventor on the ’761 Patent, “and have taken the steps necessary to protect our proprietary and inventive ideas.”

Leader is represented by the law firms King & Spalding LLP and Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP.

More documents available with Realgeek, No comments from Facebook yet, but we have insider information that Leader Technologies, have recieved some code to review from Facebook Inc.

Leader Technologies Inc. v. Facebook Inc. case Federal court filings & documents available here.

The StartUp Page NetVibes is creating an application for Facebook that will allow you to have full integration of NetVibes with the social networking website Facebook. It will let you integrate all the NetVibes activity feeds into Facebook. This new Netvibes application will enable you feel the power of facebook features like commenting, interaction & sharing alongwith the convinience of netvibes that allows sharing of widgets, videos, photos and news with friends across Facebook.

Social Line Connect is a new facebook application as well as an iPhone game that you can enjoy on your iPhone, with your friend managing it from facebook. This cross-paltform social game is a unique concept for iPhone users that not only allows them to connect with their friends through a game, but also lets them conquer the limitations of different platforms since this game can be enjoyed on phone as well on a web browser at the same time.

Social Line Connect also consists a leadbord & chat window for conversing with your pals while competing with them at the same instance. The game can be obtained from facebook. You can even download it from the apple store if you are an iPhone user.

Facebook has launched a lawsuit against German social network, StudiVZ.  Facebook accused StudiVZ for copying the look, feel, and features exactly as facebook.  StudiVZ has about 10 million users and claim to be most popular social network in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Ehssan Dariani, the site’s founder has agreed that StudiVZ is a Facebook replica.  “It was also clear from the get-go that we would strongly distinguish ourselves by other things, that we wanted to be original,” stated Dariani. Because the German version was successful, Dariani created an Italian version.

StudiVZ was bought out by a German media company called Georg von Holtzbrinck for a price that was close to €100 million a few months ago.

Visa Inc. launched the Visa Business Network, an application built on Facebook to help companies build networks and drive new business and also generate $2 million in advertising revenue for Facebook.The new Visa application will also allow small business owners to use social networking techniques to find and connect with peers and potential advisers from the 80,000 colleagues already using Facebook. It also will allow member companies to identify and target new customers. Visa have announced that the first 20,000 U.S.-based businesses joining the network will get a $100 Facebook Ads credit. So move quickly!

More involvement is seen in the smarter networking arena by Visa, they have also partnered with Google so their network users can access Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Calendar applications from within their Facebook based business network.

Visa also partnered with the Wall Street Journal’s marketing group to set up a system that lets network members to ask experts about various topics, and it worked with Entrepreneur magazine to gain access to its small business leaders.

It is also heard that Visa will have more partnerships with AllBusiness.com, Forbes, Fast Company and Microsoft. Looks Like well Planned initiative by Visa, and definite benefits for facebook and especially the users.