Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg has emerged victorious from his legal battle with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss – the Harvard twins who accused him of ripping off the idea for Facebook.
A federal court has ruled in favour of Mark Zuckerberg
by denying the Winklevosses to re-open a $65m
(£42m) legal settlement signed in 2008 with the company.
The settlement is now worth more than $160m. In their fresh
application, the brothers had alleged that they were misled about
Facebook’s value when they agreed to the 2008 settlement.
However, the court ruled that the Winklevoss brothers cannot back out of the settlement.
However, chief judge Alex Kozinski said that the twins were
sophisticated negotiators aided by a team of lawyers and had
essentuially exhausted all their options.
“At some point, litigation must come to an end,” Kozinski said. “That point has now been reached.”
Three
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judges said in the ruling, “The
Winklevosses are not the first parties bested by a competitor who then
seek to gain through litigation what they were unable to achieve in the
marketplace.”
But the twins are refusing to go without a fight – appealing a ruling.
Just as a US appeals court ruled on the case, a New York man filed an amended lawsuit against Zuckerberg.
The lawsuit centres around an email sent in 2003 in which Mr Zuckerberg discusses an
urgent need to launch his site before “a couple of upperclassmen” beat
him to it – an apparent reference to the Winklevoss twins.
The Winklevoss twins’ attorney said his clients would now seek a
fresh hearing in front a larger group of judges – which can overrule a
three-judge panel.
