Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said that the ongoing legal case in which a New York businessman has claimed ownership of up to 84 per cent of the social networking site is bunk.

Speaking to Fortune, Zuckerberg said that he hadn't even had the idea for Facebook at the time he was hired by Paul Ceglia, a New York businessman, to design web pages. Ceglia claims that the contract Zuckerberg signed gives him at least half of Facebook but this is rubbish, the Facebook boss said.

"It was all about his web site. I hadn't even thought of Facebook yet. How could I have given him an ownership interest in it?".

According to Zuckerberg, it wasn't until nearly a year later that he began work on the social networking site.

In Sleuth's opinion, this case looks like a storm in a teacup. Ceglia, who has been fined for defrauding customers of his wood pellet business, waited almost seven years before bringing the contract up and, according to Fortune, has already tried to settle the case.

"Plaintiff's counsel approached us and offered to discuss ways to make this go away," says Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt.

"We declined."

In pure economic terms it might be a good idea to just throw a little money Ceglia's way, and it would probably be cheaper than taking the case to court. But Sleuth suspects this case has got Facebook's dander up and it'll be ready to fight the case in court. That could prove very expensive to Ceglia if he loses.

23 Jul 2010