Surfbook was an earlysocial networking service created byDutchprogrammer Joannes Jozef Everardus van der Meer in the years prior to his death in June 2004.[1] Surfbook was based on technologies whosepatents were filed by Van der Meer in 1998[2] and granted in 2001 and 2002.[3] It allowed users share their information with selected people and approve posts using a"Like" button,[2] and to link to external information.[1]
On February 5, 2013, holders of the patents related to this site (Rembrandt Social Media, LP) filed a lawsuit againstFacebook for infringement.[2] In June 2014, Facebook successfully defended itself against the lawsuit after a jury found that Facebook did not infringe the patents, and separately found the patents to be invalid.[4] The plaintiff (Rembrandt Social Media, LP) appealed the verdict, but it was upheld by a federal appeals court in February 2016.[5][6]