Facebook sues Yahoo!

Facebook has filed a lawsuit against Yahoo, the Associated Press reported. The lawsuit comes after Yahoo sued Facebook last month, accusing the social media giant of infringing on 10 of its patents involving  advertising, privacy controls and social networking. Facebook responded by accusing Yahoo of violating 10 of its own patents covering photo tagging, advertising and more, the AP said. 

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Yahoo owns about 1,000 patents and warned Facebook at the end of February that it would sue if the social network refused to enter a licensing agreement, the Daily Telegraph reported.  The original patent lawsuit followed Facebook's announcement of plans for a share offering that could value the company at about $100 billion.  Yahoo, meanwhile, has seen its revenue decline in recent years, Reuters reported in March. 

"We are disappointed that Yahoo, a longtime business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially benefited from its association with Facebook, has decided to resort to litigation," Facebook announced at the time. 

In Facebook's counter suit, filed in California on Tuesday, the social network says that it has been "irreparably harmed" by Yahoo's infringement.

"While we are asserting patent claims of our own, we do so in response to Yahoo's short-sighted decision to attack one of its partners and prioritize litigation over innovation," Ted Ullyot, Facebook's general counsel, said in a statement, according to the AP. 

The Telegraph viewed documents filed by regulators, and found that Facebook is predicting that it will continue to be sued by competing companies. 

“We expect the number of patent and other intellectual property claims against us to grow,” Facebook said, according to the Telegraph. “We may introduce new products, including in areas where we currently do not compete, which could increase our exposure to patent and other intellectual property claims.”