Posted on 08/31/2010 10:52:17 AM PDT by a fool in paradise
If you have any interest in starting a social network of your own, or pretty much any online venture, you better think twice before you try to use the words “Face” or “Book” in your name unless you want Mark Zuckerberg’s lawyers to come calling.
News has been spreading around the Web that Facebook’s lawyers have taken up a lawsuit against a yet-to-launch social network for professional teachers called Teachbook.com. The reasoning behind this is explained in the suit:
"If others could freely use ‘generic plus BOOK’ marks for online networking services targeted to that particular generic category of individuals, the suffix BOOK could become a generic term for ‘online community/networking services’ or ‘social networking services.’"
While many people assume that Teachbook probably was going for a bit of a connection to Facebook with its name selection, a face book is a generic term for a directory of teachers and students at a college or university, and existed long before the social netwrok that named itself as such. Putting a “face book” online was the original intention of site CEO Mark Zuckerberg, so while it is safe to say he owns the rights to the name in that aspect of a social network, laying claim to the use of the word “book” may be a bit hard to defend.
As the day progressed, it was revealed that Facebook is also trying to lay claim to the word “Face” as it relates to online services. The company acquired the claim to the name by buying a U.K. company named FaceParty, but no award has been granted as of yet.
This could be a very long road for Mark Zuckerberg and crew.
bus, seats, cliff.
Dibs on “gun” and “dog.”
Zuckerberg has become rather well-known for silliness like this. He’ll get spanked.
Can't shoot them either 8^(
I want to copywrite the word, “I”...I would get rich off of the egotists on the left.
How about “Hell” and “No”.
The terms are too generic. He will lose.
Reason 499,022,856,628 that I'm not on "the site that shall not be named".
Apple already owns “i”.
Bastards. If he had registered all the name combinations that he wants to protect, he would have a case if someone tried to use a specific name combination. This is a case of lawyers run wild at the request of the big boss.
In other news, Michelle Obama has secured the rights for the words “First” and “Wookie”.
Does this mean Al Sharpton can’t start a social network called Racebook? Guess he’ll have to settle on Bwitter.
Don’t count on it.
A friend of mine started a dot.com in Cali during the internet boom days called Model E.
It was a company that customized and leased a package of cars instead of just one. You could have a Corvette for a week and then an Escalade the next, and so on, throughout your lease period.
Anyway, Ford sued him and he lost. Too close to Model A and Model T for Ford.
All depends on who has the most money for lawyers.
What about using VisageTome or GesichtBuch?
Pack of twits.
I'd like to see him challenge "Phone Book." How about "Blue Book?" And, of course, there are MacBooks and NetBooks out there.
Not to mention ebook.com, which has been around a while ... not to mention the generic term "e-book."
He's gonna get spanked. He's not the first person to have used "book" in the way he says, and I believe that fails what is pretty much the opening threshold for that sort of trademark claim.
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