The fight between Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss once again gives meaning to the advertising catch phrase, “you can never be too rich.”
The Winklevoss brothers, who claim Zuckerberg stole their idea for Facebook while they were all students at Harvard, have been trying to invalidate a settlement with Zuckerberg. The deal gave them cash and a piece of Facebook that was valued at $65 million. But they wanted out of the deal saying they were lied to during negotiations.
The Ninth Circuit on Monday told the twins they have to live with the deal they struck in mediation.
Judge Alex Kozinski said they were smart boys, they had smart lawyers and a very smart father who is an expert in these sorts of things.
The twins “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,” wrote Kozinski.
The litigation has provided plenty of “bread” for lawyers and recent market activity has made their deal look even better, he wrote.
“At some point, litigation must come to an end. That point has now been reached,” he said.
Oh, and there was a Hollywood movie that alleged to be about all this called “Social Network.” It made lots of money too.
Facebook v. ConnectU, Inc., 08-16745 (9th Circ.)
TrialInsider.com 