Chinese SNS may sue Facebook over timeline

L99, a Chinese SNS established in 2008, has stated plans to sue Facebook, accusing the tech giant of stealing its timeline feature.

Xiong Wanli, CEO of L99, told reporters in Beijing that L99 first released its Timeline function, which is featured on the entire website to provide a chronological record of its users' activities, on February 9, 2008. Facebook's Timeline feature, chronicling its users' messages, comments and other contents, was only launched in 2011, three years after L99's .

"L99's Timeline is on the site for all to see," said Xiong Wanli.

"I introduced our Timeline when I was giving a lecture at Stanford University. Mark Zuckerberg was there," he said. "And I had a video to prove it."

Xiong also said that a US-based law firm reminded his company that Facebook may have infringed upon the company's intellectual property.

"The law firm has contacted L99 saying it is willing to represent L99 if it decides to sue Facebook," he said.

Commenting on the case, Xu Xinming, chief lawyer of ciplawyer.com, a website regarding intellectual property law, said that it is not difficult to judge whether or not it was an infringement, but it is difficult to assess the losses incurred.