Mr Van Der Meer was granted the patents in 1998, five years before Facebook first appeared.

BBC: Facebook sued over 'like' button

Mr van der Meer wanted to get particles to hurtle into each other head on.

ECONOMIST: Simon van der Meer | The

Rembrandt Social Media said Facebook's success was based, in part, on using two of Mr Van Der Meer's patents without permission.

BBC: Facebook sued over 'like' button

It is being sued by a patent-holding company acting on behalf of a dead Dutch programmer called Joannes Jozef Everardus van Der Meer.

BBC: Facebook sued over 'like' button

Rembrandt now owns patents for technologies Mr Van Der Meer used to build a fledgling social network, called Surfbook, before his death in 2004.

BBC: Facebook sued over 'like' button

Prof van der Meer says the bacterial-based kits cope well with multiple samples, require fewer materials than standard chemical testing field kits, and are easy to prepare.

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For years on end Mr van der Meer made a study of the statistical properties of the motion of particles in accelerators: sometimes late into the night, and sometimes lost in deep reflection.

ECONOMIST: Simon van der Meer