Facebook scores court victory over Winklevoss twins

The Winklevoss twins, along with Divya Narendra, portrayed in the hit film The Social Network as angry men who claim Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for the social networking monolith, were denied more compensation from the company after a decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court’s judgment to comply with an already agreed settlement between parties.
The twins, who are also Olympics rowers, started a company with Narendra called ConnectU while students at Harvard and claim that Zuckerberg stole and capitalized off their social networking idea when the three approached him to design an interface.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that they were given too few shares from Facebook in their settlement and that the social networking kingpin hid company information in an internal valuation that Facebook kept private.
Though struck down by a unanimous three-judge panel on Monday, the original agreed-upon settlement of cash and stock estimated at $65 million is still enforceable and will be shared between Narenda and Winklevoss twins Cameron and Tyler if no further action is taken.
“At some point, litigation must come to an end,” wrote Alex Kozinski, chief judge in the case. “That point has now been reached.” Kozinski also wrote that the twins had sound legal council and were suited to negotiate in a fair manner.
Jerome Falk Jr., an attorney for the Winklevoss duo, stated that his clients will try a rehearing before an “en banc,” or larger and more comprehensive set of Ninth Circuit judges. While it is true that the “en banc” set of judges have the ability to overrule the three-judge panel, it is very unlikely for the case to be reheard, and will likely lead to a final option of appealing to the Supreme Court.
Facebook opened offices in Austin in Oct. 2010, and through an incentives agreement with the City of Austin, has pledged to hire 200 workers during a four-year time line.
Facebook took in an estimate of profits in excess of $600 million for 2010 and has more than 100 million users of its mobile app.
Would you like all your dreams to come true? Follow Marc Speir on twitter @truthorcon.