Facebook Sues German Social Network StudiVZ

Publish Date: 07-18-2008 09:25 PM -0700

Facebook is pursuiting social networks it believes have copied their design or features by suing German social network StudiVZ. The Financial Times has reported that Facebook have filed a suit in the Californian Supreme Court against the German company for what it claims is an infringement of Facebooks “look, feel, features and services”.

StudiVZ claims to have 10 million active members, and is the largest social network in the German speaking world, covering Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. The network is actually split across three different sites, each one a seperate social network aimed at different parts of the market. Studivz.net is the classic site for college-aged students, Schuelervz.net is for high school students and Meinvz.net is for older adults (this three-networks was very confusing for me to decipher in German when I attempted to signup)

Facebook does seem to have a claim here, as the German site looks like nothing more than Facebook in red and translated in German. Everything from the first public page, the signup page and the profile pages look earily similar to the US-based social network. StudiVZ were acquired earlier this year by the German media group Georg von Holtzbrinck, with an acquisition price in the 100M Euro range. They always say to sue where the money is, and Facebook have certainly found a pile of it by targetting Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck.