If you saw “The Social Network,” or follow the story of the birth of Facebook, you know that two twin jocks at Harvard had a similar idea (or rather, the same idea, depending on your school of thought) and eventually sued Mark Zuckerberg for stealing it. In their initial lawsuit, they got $100 million in Facebook shares as settlement.
Unsatisfied, they continued to fight, arguing that they were misled about just how much Facebook was worth, and fought for yet more money. (Keep in mind, they weren’t exactly destitute in the beginning.)
Well, the Ninth Circuit Court has had enough… ruling that they are not entitled to more. But they went a step further, issuing a ‘quit yer’ bitchin’ sorta language within the ruling:
It reads (via Gawker)
The Winklevosses are not the first parties bested by a competitor who then seek to gain through litigation what they were unable to achieve in the marketplace. And the courts might have obliged, had the Winklevosses not settled their dispute and signed a release of all claims against Facebook. With the help of a team of lawyers and a financial advisor, they made a deal that appears quite favorable in light of recent market activity. For whatever reason, they now want to back out. Like the district court, we see no basis for allowing them to do so.
At some point, litigation must come to an end. That point has now been reached.
Meow and hurrah! Natch, still the Winkle-kids (wait- that sounds like a great children’s show!) vow to press on. Honestly, if I ever receive 100 million (scratch that – when I make 100 million – fingers crossed,) I will spend my most trying times soaking up sun on a yacht somewhere and stop my complaining.