Did Arianna Huffington and Ken Lerer steal the idea for the Huffington Post?
Though Huffington has deemed the allegation "ridiculous," a judge thinks that a lawsuit making that claim is serious enough to go to trial, per a ruling in a New York court Wednesday.
Peter Daou and James Boyce, two former political advisers, filed suit against the HuffPost co-founders last November claiming that they took their idea for a liberal-leaning news site. Since then, Huffington and Lerer have tried to have the case thrown out, but to no avail.
The judge ruled Wednesday that the case would go to trial.
Daou and Boyce were involved in the early discussions about the now-sprawling media empire, but just how involved they were is unclear. (For a thorough debrief on the background of the suit, check out this Vanity Fair piece from February).
The Huffington Post launched in May 2005, meaning it has now been more than six years since the founding and even more since the discussions took place.
The timing on this may seem odd to some — the site has been successful for some time — but the judge thinks this case deserves a trial.
Given how many people are targeting the HuffPost, that may not be a good thing.
This was first reported by PaidContent.
