Facebook and Yahoo have agreed to settle a dispute over patents, according to an unnamed person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal has not been officially announced by the tech giants. The deal would end lawsuits the companies filed against each other without any money exchanged, according to the person. The technology site AllThingsD.com initially reported on the deal earlier today. AllThingsD reports the deal includes a joint advertising sales effort and cross-licensing of patents between the companies. Yahoo first sued Facebook in March, saying the online social networking company infringed on 10 of its patents covering advertising, privacy controls and social networks. Shortly after that, Facebook bought 750 patents from IBM and filed its own lawsuit against Yahoo claiming patent infringement. Then, Facebook announced that it will pay $550 million for 650 patents that Microsoft had bought from AOL, and Yahoo later added two more patents to its complaint. In May, Facebook completed its initial public offering of stock, while Yahoo replaced CEO Scott Thompson after questions arose about an official biography that contained a degree he never earned.
Source: Yahoo, Facebook have settled patent fight
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