A Massachusetts District Court Judge has given ConnectU two weeks to revise their complaint against Facebook, according to a CNet News report.
ConnectU is due to give a conference call at 3pm PST. We’ll be back with more as we get it.
Conference call Live notes
3pm ConnectU Counsel states that they can’t talk about the litigation in the intro aside from what is in the public domain. Not a good start.
3:05pm: one of ConnectU’s founders claims that they are not trying to shut Facebook down.
3:10pm: explanation on background. They don’t like Mark Zuckerberg; the claim is that Zuckerberg worked for ConnectU and stole the idea
3:13pm: ConnectU’s founders claim that the case is not about the money
3:15pm: Q&A, first question isn’t answered due to “legal issues.”
3:16pm: current action was filled in March 2007, although it wasn’t made clear why there was a new legal action. Obvious question: if it’s not about the money why was it refilled in 2007?
3:20pm: Q&A from conference call participants. Simply ConnectU wont discuss anything remotely interesting.
3:25 conference call ends. Yawn.
Conclusion
I’ve had a number of people tell me today that ConnectU doesn’t have a leg to stand on; I’ve tried to keep an open mind to date and whilst there may still be some chance that ConnectU has a case, this conference call will have done them no favors. ConnectU’s founders and Legal Counsel gave nothing interesting in the call and were indeed elusive when it came to the questions the media asked; questions that in a proper presentation of ConnectU’s case should have been answered. It should be remembered that ConnectU called this conference: this was their opportunity to defend their case and instead they wasted the time of a slew of Tech Journalists.
Previous TechCrunch coverage of ConnectU vs Facebook here and here
UPDATE: Facebook responds:”We are pleased with the outcome of the hearing today. We continue to disagree with the allegations that Mark Zuckerberg stole any ideas or code to build Facebook.”