A hearing into the case against the founder of the social networking website Facebook has been postponed by the judge until 8 August.
Three founders of a rival site, ConnectU, say Facebook’s creator Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for the site while they were all at Harvard.
The judge has given ConnectU’s founders extra time to flesh out their case.
Facebook’s lawyers denied the allegations and urged Judge Douglas Woodlock to dismiss the case.
The Federal case accuses Mr Zuckerberg of fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets, and asks for ConnectU to be given ownership of Facebook.
Facebook has become a global phenomenon with about 31 million users, compared with ConnectU’s 70,000.
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