If the once-proud Yahoo! brand eventually drifts into Web obscurity, as many have predicted it will, the company plans to go down swinging. Or suing, at the very least. The deflated tech powerhouse recently filed a lawsuit against social-media giant Facebook, demanding licensing fees for the use of 10 patented technologies that Yahoo claims have already been licensed to other companies. The lawsuit has initiated the first major patent battle involving a social media company, while also earning Yahoo a fair amount of ridicule from the Web community. Yahoo’s claims were conspicuously levied shortly after Facebook’s multi billiondollar IPO, evoking memories of a similar suit the company filed against Google in the days leading up to its own historic IPO.

Read more 'Net Briefs from the May 2012 issue of Website Magazine: New and Improved iPad - Mobile App Watch - Twitter Ads on the Go - Startups to Watch - Lost in Translation - Bing's Organic Phase  - Acquisitions and Milestones  - It's About Time(line)  - OpenStack Opens Up - Mind Games  - Girl Power - The Hacker Way