Here we'll explore the nexus of legal rulings, Capitol Hill
policy-making, technical standards development, and technological
innovation that creates -- and will recreate -- the networked world as we
know it. Among the topics we'll touch on: intellectual property
conflicts, technical architecture and innovation, the evolution of
copyright, private vs. public interests in Net policy-making, lobbying
and the law, and more.
Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this weblog are those of the authors and not of their respective institutions.
It's also Facebook's way of saying "let's negotiate" - they're showing that they can bring weight to the table, which puts them in a better position to make the whole thing go away. Neither company can really afford this: Facebook does not want its multi-billion-dollar IPO disrupted and Yahoo can't afford to pay for a protracted patent struggle. Cross-licensing these 20 patents (and probably whatever else they've got lying around) would strengthen both companies' positions.
I also expect Facebook to throw Yahoo a bone, like paying their legal costs for this.
