A U.S. District Judge dismissed a lawsuit against Facebook by Power.com Thursday, the latest move in a back-and-forth legal battle between the two social-media services.
In December, Facebook blocked Power.com, a site that links members’ social-networking accounts, from accessing Facebook profiles. It also sued the company, accusing it of trademark and copyright violations.
Power.com countersued Facebook in July. Its founder, Steve Vachani, has noted that sites such as Twitter, MySpace and Google’s Orkut enable access from Power.com and said at the time that his suit was “about users’ control of their data.” It brought on as legal counsel Scott Bursor, who fought Verizon Wireless and Sprint in early-termination-fee disputes.
The judge, Jeremy Fogel, however, dismissed Power.com’s suit, calling it “untethered to any specific claim” and said that part of its claims “contain no factual allegations.”
Power.com, based in San Francisco, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. (see update)
A spokesman for Facebook, based on Palo Alto, Calif., said the company was pleased with the dismissal. In a statement, he added, “Our case against them continues with the one simple demand that they agree to protect user data and privacy by abiding by our terms of use — the same one that thousands of other developers use when integrating Facebook into their site.”
Facebook previously suggested Power.com use Facebook Connect, a feature that lets its members log in to other Web sites with their Facebook logins. Mr. Vachini said in July that Power.com didn’t use the feature because it disagreed with Facebook’s terms.
UPDATE, 3:46 p.m.: Power.com says it plans to revise its claims with more detail. “This is a routine type of order that often occurs in the early stages of litigation, where the parties dispute the sufficiency of the pleadings in terms of the level of factual detail that is provided,” it says in a statement. “Power is confident that it will be able to amend its pleading within 30 days to satisfy the Court’s concerns.”
