Facebook served with internet lawsuit concerning patent violation

Baltimore, MDA Baltimore company with fewer than five employees is reportedly suing the social media website Facebook in a technology lawsuit.

span itemprop="image" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" style="display:block">WhoGlue is alleging in its lawsuit that the large social media site violated the company's patent for Distributed Personal Relationship Information Management System and Methods, the Baltimore Sun reports. The patent was reportedly issued on July 17, 2007, after WhoGlue applied for the patent in 2001.

Facebook was founded by then-Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. The site currently has more than 300 million online users.

WhoGlue is seeking monetary damages, as well as a permanent injunction against Facebook from infringing on its patent, states the lawsuit.

Founded in 2000, WhoGlue provides back-office software to associations and non-profits that help them manage the online communities of their members.

The patent is allegedly for a system where "members of an online network may control who has access to any given piece of information they create and distribute," according to the suit.

The Baltimore Business Journal suggests that Facebook's privacy controls may be the central element of the internet lawsuit.