It's difficult to follow, and I haven't read all the legal proceedings, but here is what I have gathered:
* Think Computer coined the term "The Facebook" to describe an in-house portal system at Harvard University which they built, back in 2003.
* At some point Mark Zuckerberg registered "thefacebook.com" and started making a competing student portal. He later renamed this to facebook.com (thefacebook.com still redirects to facebook.com to this day)
* Think Computers was content to let sleeping dogs lie for the most part, but decided that they wanted to publish a book about their portal system and the title of the book contained the words "the facebook".
* Facebook.com sued Think Computers for trademark infringement and got advertisement for the book blocked.
* Think Computers countersued facebook.com, claiming fraud in their trademark, because Mark Zuckerberg was classmates with Think Computers CEO at the time and knew that he had previously coined "the facebook" for his portal system.
* Facebook tried to get the fraud count removed, presumably because if they are found guilty, penalties may extend beyond the loss of the trademark "Facebook".
* The court just ruled that the fraud count will not be removed for the upcoming trial.
I heard there was a printed student guide that was informally called 'the face book' at Harvard (and possibly other places) before any of these online projects got underway.
If so, I suspect the key question is whether that term can be repurposed to become a trademark for vaguely similar, but broader, commercial online services, and which actions of Zuckerberg and others may have served to create a defensible claim on that mark.
I don't want to comment in great detail here, but this analysis is factually incorrect. No civil suits are involved. If you're interested, you should really just read the proceedings.
* Think Computer coined the term "The Facebook" to describe an in-house portal system at Harvard University which they built, back in 2003.
* At some point Mark Zuckerberg registered "thefacebook.com" and started making a competing student portal. He later renamed this to facebook.com (thefacebook.com still redirects to facebook.com to this day)
* Think Computers was content to let sleeping dogs lie for the most part, but decided that they wanted to publish a book about their portal system and the title of the book contained the words "the facebook".
* Facebook.com sued Think Computers for trademark infringement and got advertisement for the book blocked.
* Think Computers countersued facebook.com, claiming fraud in their trademark, because Mark Zuckerberg was classmates with Think Computers CEO at the time and knew that he had previously coined "the facebook" for his portal system.
* Facebook tried to get the fraud count removed, presumably because if they are found guilty, penalties may extend beyond the loss of the trademark "Facebook".
* The court just ruled that the fraud count will not be removed for the upcoming trial.