Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has won a legal battle against
former Harvard classmates who accuse him of stealing their idea for the
social networking site.
Mark Zuckerberg has become a billionaire through Facebook
Twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss must accept a cash and stock settlement with Facebook valued at £40m ($65m) - but the feud made famous on the silver screen is not over yet.
Just as a US appeals court made the ruling, a New York man filed an amended lawsuit against Zuckerberg.
It cited an email sent in 2003 in which Mr Zuckerberg discusses an urgent need to launch his site before "a couple of upperclassmen" beat him to it - an apparent reference to the Winklevoss twins.
The brothers, whose row with Zuckerberg featured in the film The Social Network, argued their settlement was unfair because the company hid information from them during talks.
Cameron (L) and Tyler (R) Winklevoss
But chief judge Alex Kozinski wrote that the twins were sophisticated negotiators aided by a team of lawyers."At some point, litigation must come to an end," he said. "That point has now been reached."
An attorney for the brothers said on Monday his clients would seek a fresh hearing before a larger group of judges - which can overrule a three-judge panel.
The 6ft 5in (1.96m) Winklevoss brothers are Olympic rowers who participated in the 2008 games in Beijing.
In the movie, actor Armie Hammer played both identical twins. Zuckerberg's character snidely refers to them as the "Winklevi."