Surfbook

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title: "Surfbook" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["defunct-social-networking-services", "dutch-social-networking-websites"] description: "Defunct social networking service" topic_path: "geography/netherlands" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfbook" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Defunct social networking service ::

Surfbook was an early social networking service created by Dutch programmer Joannes Jozef Everardus van der Meer in the years prior to his death in June 2004. Surfbook was based on technologies whose patents were filed by Van der Meer in 1998 and granted in 2001 and 2002. It allowed users share their information with selected people and approve posts using a "Like" button, and to link to external information.

On February 5, 2013, holders of the patents related to this site (Rembrandt Social Media, LP) filed a lawsuit against Facebook for infringement. In June 2014, Facebook successfully defended itself against the lawsuit after a jury found that Facebook did not infringe the patents, and separately found the patents to be invalid. The plaintiff (Rembrandt Social Media, LP) appealed the verdict, but it was upheld by a federal appeals court in February 2016.

References

References

1. Mullin, Joe. (2013-02-07). "Before Facebook there was "Surfbook"—now pay up | Ars Technica, February 7, 2013". Arstechnica.com.
2. (2013-02-11). "BBC News - Facebook sued over 'like' button, February 11, 2013". Bbc.co.uk.
3. [http://www.nrc.nl/tech/2013/02/11/liken-is-een-nederlandse-vondst/ Nederlandse ontwikkelaars klagen Facebook aan:] NRC Handelsblad {{in lang. nl
4. (2014-06-13). "Facebook Beats Surfbook in Patent-Infringement Trial". NBC News.
5. (2016-02-25). "Facebook did not infringe Rembrandt patents on web-based diary systems; jury verdict stands". Wolters Kulwer.
6. "Opinion in Rembrandt Social Media, L.P. v. Facebook, Case No. 2014-1812, Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (February 25, 2016)".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::