It appears that $20 Million and Stock was not enough for the Winklevoss Twins.
They have requested that their previous judgment of $20 Million dollar with additional stock (now worth an estimated $160 Million) be thrown out and a new case be open requesting a larger piece of Facebook.
Thankfully their case was rejected, not once but twice (initial and appeal). The twins have not said if they are going to appeal to the Supreme Court.
“For whatever reason, they now want to back out. Like the district court, we see no basis for allowing them to do so. At some point, litigation must come to an end. That point has now been reached,” chief justice Alex Kozinksi summarily said.
While the hit movie “Social Media” paints in interesting picture and time line for the creation of Facebook. The Winklevoss twins did received compensation for their perceived “idea”. To now ask the courts to throw out the compensation judgment after the explosion of Facebook, something that they had no active part in, looks very greedy.
Judgments of this nature are perceived as a stop gap. What is the idea worth today. Because this settlement was not a Royalty issue, or tied to future evaluations, the twins should not have a case. The danger here is that if the courts open this case back up, there could a large number of other cases to follow. Every investor that sold their (stock, company, idea) only to watch it sore in value could argue that the buyer/company had withheld key information clouding their decision. Thus asking for more money based on the new evaluations.
While not defending either side of the this story, I am defending the role of the first judgment and agreed settlement. Sorry, $160 Million for writing no code, hiring no people, running no company, seems like fair compensation for an idea.