The jury scenario seems unlikely, though, and chances are Facebook will pay Ceglia to go away before things get too hairy, as it did with the Winklevoss twins, who to settle their ownership claims on the social network.

In his complaint against Facebook, Ceglia claims he hired Zuckerberg in 2003 to perform work relating to StreetFax.com, a website previously operated by Ceglia.

The complaint also alleges that agreement provides that Ceglia would pay Zuckerberg $1,000 to finance his work on "The Face Book." In exchange, it maintains, Ceglia would own a "half interest (50%) in the software, programming language and business interests derived from the expansion of that service to a larger audience."

In its motion to dismiss, Facebook, which pulled in in revenue last year and has more than 800 million users, claims the contract submitted to the court by Ceglia is a forgery created by him to support his fraudulent lawsuit.

Facebook’s experts found the authentic StreetFax contract on Ceglia’s own computer hard drive, the motion explained. That authentic contract concerns only the limited website development work that Zuckerberg performed for StreetFax. It says nothing about Facebook.