Not Zuckerberg? The Indian-American student who claimed Facebook's idea was his

Facebook is usually associated with Mark Zuckerberg, but its early history includes another Harvard student whose own social-networking idea became the subject of a years-long legal dispute.That student was Divya Narendra, the son of Indian immigrant doctors in the US. In December 2002, while at Harvard, Narendra began working on an online network that would allow students to connect with fellow students. Harvard classmates Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss joined him, and the project was named Harvard Connection, later known as ConnectU.The plan was to begin with Harvard and eventually take the network to other universities.How Zuckerberg became part of the storyBuilding the website took time. Narendra first approached Harvard student Sanjay Mavinkurve to develop the platform. Mavinkurve later graduated and joined Google, so he could not finish the project. The group then worked with Victor Gao, who had done some coding himself. According to NDTV, Gao eventually suggested that they approach Zuckerberg, who had recently completed his first year at Harvard. Zuckerberg agreed to work on Harvard Connection in November 2003. By that point, the project already had several components, including its registration system, database, front-end pages, back-end coding and a feature designed to let users connect with one another.Narendra and the Winklevoss brothers also shared confidential information and codes from the project with Zuckerberg. They discussed their plans to expand the network beyond Harvard as well. But their association did not last. According to Narendra and the Winklevoss brothers, Zuckerberg began putting off meetings and responding to their messages by saying he was busy with other work. On January 11, 2004, Zuckerberg registered the domain thefacebook.com. Facebook launched at Harvard on February 4. Narendra said he discovered the new website two days later, when students were talking about a new social network for Harvard. Narendra later described how much time he had already invested in the earlier project.“I spent almost one year developing the concept and searching for programmers (along with the Winklevoss twins) to build what was then called Harvard-Connection .com,” he told The Economic Times in 2010.A lawsuit and million dollar settlementNarendra and the Winklevoss brothers believed Zuckerberg had taken their idea. They first approached Harvard's administrative board and university president Larry Summers, asking the university to intervene. When that did not resolve the matter, they filed a lawsuit.The case alleged that Zuckerberg had used source code intended for Harvard Connection and had taken information connected to the project. Zuckerberg said he had not used Harvard Connection's code in Facebook.The dispute continued for years as Facebook grew beyond Harvard and expanded across the US and other parts of the world. An out-of-court settlement was eventually reached. The amount was reported at $65 million, and Narendra also received a small percentage of Facebook shares as part of the settlement.By 2010, Narendra had reportedly moved on from the dispute. He was pursuing law and business studies while also running SumZero, an investment-focused social network he co-founded. His story also became part of The Social Network, the 2010 film about Facebook's beginnings. Actor Max Minghella played Narendra in the movie.Narendra said the experience changed how he viewed the relationship between law and business. Facebook was no longer at the centre of his career, but the Harvard project remained an important chapter in the story of how the social network began.- Ends