Yahoo! sues! Facebook!

As I discussed on this morning’s Marketplace Morning Report, Yahoo is suing Facebook over about a million zillion alleged patent infringements, everything from status updates to messaging to advertising. Basically, Yahoo is saying that Facebook was built on the back of Yahoo, although the suit doesn’t really explain why, if this truly is the case, Facebook is thriving and Yahoo has been falling apart for years. The suit comes after a period of agonizing for Yahoo, according to leaks, which has never been this aggressive about patents before and it comes at a time when Facebook is about to start selling shares and having to live up to its gargantuan valuation estimates. For its part, Facebook says the suit is a surprise and that it will fight the action vigorously.

So is this a sign that Yahoo is gasping for air, resorting to firing missiles against a company like Facebook instead of legitimately trying to compete with it? Well, I wouldn’t say that, although I wouldn’t have much of an argument if you said that.