Surfbook was an early

social networking service A social networking service (SNS), or social networking site, is a type of online social media platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interest ...

created by Dutch

programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...

Joannes Jozef Everardus van der Meer in the years prior to his death in June 2004. Surfbook was based on technologies whose

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s were filed by Van der Meer in 1998 and granted in 2001 and 2002.Nederlandse ontwikkelaars klagen Facebook aan:
NRC Handelsblad It allowed users share their information with selected people and approve posts using a "Like" button, and to link to external information. On February 5, 2013, holders of the patents related to this site (Rembrandt Social Media, LP) filed a lawsuit against

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

for infringement. In June 2014, Facebook successfully defended itself against the lawsuit after a jury found that Facebook did not infringe the patents, and separately found the patents to be invalid. The plaintiff (Rembrandt Social Media, LP) appealed the verdict, but it was upheld by a federal appeals court in February 2016.

References

{{Online social networking Defunct social networking services Dutch social networking websites