Facebook unleashed its retaliatory actions against Yahoo, which the social networking giant has accused of using technologies that it claims exclusive ownership of.

Filed Tuesday before the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, California, the lawsuit, according to The Associated Press (AP), listed 10 possible patent infringements, which reports said were lumped with the recent patents that Facebook had acquired from IBM.

Facebook identified some of the patents as online image tagging, web adverts and social recommendations, AP said, all of which were presumably parts of the 750 patents that the company had recently bought from IBM.

At present, Facebook holds a measly collection of 56 patents in the United States while Yahoo, established years ahead of the Mark Zuckerberg-led social media firm, enjoys more than a thousand of exclusive technology copyrights.

Facebook did not mince words in admitting that its latest action serves as its solid answer on Yahoo's legal moves, which the internet giant said damaged the two entities' previous business partnership.

What Yahoo did, when it filed its patent claims, was significant backward steps, Facebook said.

"While we are asserting patent claims of our own, we do so in response to Yahoo's short-sighted decision to attack one of its partners and prioritize litigation over innovation," Facebook legal representative Ted Ullyot was reported by AP as saying in a statement.

Facebook, Ullyot said, seeks a jury trial and compensation for damages brought about by the Yahoo claims, stressing that the hugely popular social media firm incurred irreparable harms due to Yahoo's patent infringements.

The company also reiterated that Yahoo's earlier suit must be dismissed, Facebook's lawyer said.

Yahoo officials had confirmed the existence of the new suit, which they described following initial review as lacking on merits "and nothing more than a cynical attempt to distract from the weakness of its defence."

Also, Yahoo reaffirmed its commitment to pursue the case against Facebook, stressing in a statement that "the unauthorized use of our patented technology is unacceptable and must be resolved appropriately."

"Other leading companies license these technologies, and Facebook must do the same or change the way it operates," Yahoo said as reported by AP.

Tech world observers view the legal spar as the battle of the titans though Yahoo has been described as the struggling one, which in recent years has been grappling with the right formula to reclaim both its old glory and wealth.

The company's estimated value is presently pegged at around $18.3 billion, AP wrote, which has shrunk considerably from the search giant's heydays.

Facebook, on the other hand, has become the internet hotshot with its co-founder amassing enough billions to secure Forbes' citation as one of the youngest billionaires in the world.

Facebook is currently worth tens of billions but analysts said it value should easily breach the $100 billion once its initial public offering has been completed, thereby making it a juicy target for legal hassling.