US judge delays ruling on Facebook lawsuit

A US federal judge has delayed ruling on whether to throw out a lawsuit filed against the founder of Facebook.com, saying he needed more information about allegations that Mark Zuckerberg stole the ideas of the creators of a rival social networking website.

In Boston, Judge Douglas Woodlock gave ConnectU founders Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss — who are twin brothers — and Divya Narendra until August 8 to flesh out their allegations against Zuckerberg, which include fraud, copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets.

The lawsuit, which also names several other founding members of Facebook, asks the court to issue an injunction against Facebook and give control of the company and its assets to ConnectU’s founders.

Facebook said in a statement that it was pleased with the outcome of the hearing.

“We continue to disagree with the allegations that Mark Zuckerberg stole any ideas or code to build Facebook,” the statement said. “We intend to honour the judge’s request not to comment further in the media and will continue to vigorously defend this case in court.”

Facebook and ConnectU connect college students and others online. Both allow users to post profiles with pictures, biographies and other personal information and create extended networks of people at their schools or jobs or with similar interests.