Just a few days ago, Facebook filed suit against Illinois-based Teachbook for “rid[ing] on the coattails of the fame and enormous goodwill of the Facebook trademark.” {CNN}

Teachbook, a social network for educators which has yet to launch, has refused to back down on their own trademark filing to protect the name. TripTrace, formerly known as Placebook, however, found themselves on the receiving end of a similar suit and decided to just undergo a name change.

CNN reports:

A rep for Facebook said the company doesn’t claim to own rights to the word “book,” as it has no complaint with titles like Kelley Blue Book.

“However, there is already a well-known online service with ‘book’ in the brand name that helps people connect and share,” the Facebook rep said in an email.

Is "f" next on the list of trademarked Facebook terms?

While it’s not explicitly part of trademark law, trademark holders are often advised to “aggressively defend” their trademarks for the best hope of protecting them against infringement.

But it seems the Facebook legal department may be going a bit too far. In addition to fighting social startups that try to use the word “book” within their domains, they’re now trying to secure the trademark rights to “face” and “like.” {TechCrunch}

While the Placebook case is somewhat understandable given the similar sound of the two names, the pursuit of Teachbook makes Facebook seem like a bit of a trademark bully. So the pursuit of trademarks over 2 words as generic and common as face and like may not seem like a big deal, but could mean bad news for smaller startups or even for similar behemoths.

You may recall a little product that Apple is pushing called FaceTime. If Facebook were to secure the rights to the word “face,” particularly for social applications, Apple could be the likely target of a suit. While their targets have so far been small startups, if we follow Facebook’s legal logic of their brand already being a well-known service with “face” in the brand name that helps people connect and share, they almost have to go after Apple. We’re not against brand protection, but that seems like a much more fairly matched fight than the ones Facebook’s already picked. Still, only time will tell if other companies will be able to save face.

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It’s been talked about for quite some time, and now it’s finally happening.  Facebook will allow users to check-in at locations straight from Facebook.  The social network is partnering with the major location-based services–Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, and Booya (makers of MyTown)–to bring check-ins to the masses.  Well, at least the masses that have smartphones or other touchscreen devices.

The service is called Facebook Places, and will be available via both the iPhone app and touch.facebook.com.  Android, WebOS and BlackBerry users will have to be satisfied with touch.facebook.com for the moment.  It will roll out gradually, but should be reaching all Facebook users soon.  Presumably, it should work either way for those who use the iPhone app, it would be rather senseless to have an option for an app that you can’t use yet.

Places, like the other services, will allow you to check-in to locations with friends, and allow other friends know where you are.  The updates are, by default, only shared with friends.  Users can tag their friends in check-ins, and only their friends.  Only friends will see check-ins, though users can change that setting.  Users also have the option to remove tags from check-ins or to remove a check-in at any time. {Mashable} That will come in handy for the people we know who lock down their accounts at the first sign of an embarrassing photo tag.

Places will let merchants set up specials for users who check-in, just like other networks.  What it doesn’t offer, however, is a gaming element like you’ll find in Foursquare and Gowalla.  So, no badges or mayorships to be had on Facebook.  Those badges and mayorships can be shown on Facebook, however.

Facebook has announced that with the Places app will come the read API for services {TechCrunch}.  The write and search APIs are currently in closed beta, but should be released soon.  Hopefully by that time Foursquare (or a third party developer) will create a Facebook app that will allow users to check-in on one service and have it pushed to the other.  The gaming elements of Foursquare are fun, but with only 2.5 million users it’s not likely that all your friends will be using it.  With 500 million users, it might be hard to find friends who don’t use Facebook.  Combining the two means we’ll have friends who might see what we’re doing, in addition to fun gaming elements of Foursquare.

While there’s been plenty of displeasure with Facebook’s privacy settings, hopefully the friends only feature will help with some of the safety risks of location based social media. Provided you’re not already friends with someone who’d rob you, of course, the integration could help in making sure that you’re only updating a select group of people about where you are.

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Back in July when the names for the products in the Rodarte line were released, Jessica Wakeman posted an angry rant on the Frisky saying the designations were inappropriate, which sparked discussion around the Internet. M.A.C. and Rodarte responded with an apology and promise to donate proceeds from the line to victims of violence and poverty in Juarez, Mexico. They also elected to change the names for their makeup products, but now M.A.C. has announced via Facebook page statement that the collection will not ship at all. {The Cut}

Why all the backtracking from such a highly anticipated collaboration?

The collection was inspired by Mexican culture after a trip through Texas taken by Rodarte’s two designers. The products were thus named with that inspiration in mind. “Quinceañera” was chosen for the name of a pink blush, while “Ghost Town” was selected as the name for a sheer white lipstick. However, it was the nail polish called “Juarez” that ticked off the Frisky, which blasted the brands for being tasteless. {The Cut} The blog post said:

“Why’s it tasteless? Juarez is an impoverished Mexican factory town notorious for the number of women between the ages of 12 and 22 who have been raped and murdered with little or no response from police. Most of the young women are employees at the border town’s factories, called maquiladoras, and disappeared on the way to or from work. Activists have been applying constant pressure on Mexican police, who have shown little response to properly investigating the murders, allegedly because the victims are poor women. The crime channel TruTV even called Juarez a “serial killers’ playground”! And it’s not like the Juarez murders are some big secret: Jennifer Lopez even starred in a film,“Bordertown,” playing a reporter who writes about the rapes and murders.”  {the Frisky}

The blog post prompted widespread Internet debate over the cosmetic names, in addition to many angry comments from the Frisky’s readers. Some were shocked, some were equally outraged by Rodarte’s nail polish name, some mocked the author for reading too much into a nail polish name and others alleged the blogger’s research was incorrect. Whether you agree with the post or not, the fact that a blogger caused a cosmetics brand such as M.A.C. to put the brakes on an entire, much talked about collection goes to show just how influential the blogosphere can be.

The statement M.A.C. released Tuesday said the line was canceled “out of respect for the people of Mexico,” and they will still donate the projected profits from the line to legitimate organizations that work to support the women of Juarez. {Elle UK}

What do you think? Is M.A.C. doing the right thing by withholding the collection, or is this a case of overly PC Internet writers finding offense where none actually exists?

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Last week, the luxury fragrance house sent five perfumed taxi cabs out into central London to serve patrons the same way any other London black taxi would with a few exceptions. Each cab smells like either the brand’s Artemisia, Blenheim Bouquet, Endymion, Malabah or Orange Blossom perfume, and each one’s driver is specially trained to discuss Penhaligon’s fragrances and answer any questions about the brand. Passengers will receive a 10 percent voucher for purchases at penhaligons.com and in Penhaligon’s boutiques at the conclusion of their ride. {InStyle UK}

Londoners will easily be able to spot the cabs’ outer Penhaligon’s branding, and the cost of each trip will run the same as any regular black cab ride. {London Beauty Review} Anyone who spies a Penhaligon’s cab but doesn’t take a trip in it can still participate in the promotion by snapping a picture of the car and posting it to their Facebook page with Penhaligon’s tagged for a chance to win a 100ml fragrance of choice. {Fashion Foie Gras}

Penhaligon’s is not the first company to embrace the taxi as a marketing tool. Last month, Revlon offered Londoners who photographed the turquoise taxi they sent around the city and tagged Revlon in the picture on Facebook a chance to try the brand’s latest mascara before it hit shelves. {London Beauty Review} In addition, Fashion Foie Gras says tons of major retail outlets have used the taxi cab in one promotional form or another.

We wonder just who it was that was sitting at their cubicle one day and thought “taxis! That’s how to sell products.” In this economy, we suppose it’s smart to get creative with promotions, and the incorporation of Facebook is a good move. We wonder, though, what may be the result if a passenger who is allergic to perfumes steps into one of Penhaligon’s cabs unknowingly. Comment and let us know if you think cab marketing is a good idea!

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“Bangs” that are received after midnight or from foreign countries will rack up more points for the user, and each day selected users will win prizes like Marc Jacobs clothing and bottles of the new fragrance. Just a few fortunate ones will eventually win the grand prize – an invite to one of Marc Jacob’s upcoming fashion shows. {Hint}

The name of the game is quite suggestive, though not nearly as racy as the Bang ads that cropped up on the Internet this May. Jacobs, who recently split from Brazilian PR Guru Lorenzo Martone, said the name of the new product has many meanings.

“When the word ‘bang’ came to me, I liked that it was a sound and also that it felt like something was finished, done, end of story and, you know, kind of complete,” he told Elle.

The “bang” Facebook game is quite the clever marketing idea. With the success of social game makers like Playdom and the premium audience spending time on Facebook, the incorporation of social media, game mechanics and incentives sounds like a winning combination, and one that we hope to see extended beyond fragrance and beauty for more brands. Go Marc!

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You may have heard that Facebook recently hit 500 million members. According to Google AdPlanner, in June the popular social network received 540 million unique visitors, so there’s some evidence that the site’s open graph initiative is working in expanding the reach of the site even beyond its massive user base.

But what’s really interesting is how Facebook has penetrated the wealthy web. First, a little background on why we focus on internet trends among $100,000+ households. The only site which reaches more wealthy US users is Yahoo, who reaches 56% of the $100k+ online population, compared to Facebook’s 51% (Google may reach more, though they don’t include themselves in their AdPlanner stats, so it’s difficult to pinpoint exact numbers).

As a whole, households with an income of $100,000/year or more represent the top 15% of all households according to the 2005 Census. A little over $150,000/year would place a household among the top fifth in the country. {Wikipedia} Internet users who in households earning over $100,000 per year represent the top 10% of the internet population, and those earning over $150,000 are in the top 3%.

Offline, there’s evidence that while the top earners take in a disproportional amount of money compared to the rest of the country, they also spend more – accounting for 40% of consumer spending. While we haven’t found any studies to show that high earners spend more online, it’s not an illogical thought.

For fashion, we know that the wealthy are overwhelmingly shopping at sites like Macy’s and Zappos in greater quantities than sites like Neiman Marcus or Saks. When it comes to social sites, where are the wealthy spending time? On Facebook and YouTube primarily, but also reading blogs, tweeting or on the professional network LinkedIn. Disappointed?

We know, the profile of the wealthy social web sounds strikingly similar to the general social web. But it’s important to highlight this for luxury brands and marketers who are still fearful of the dirty, unwashed masses that they suspect of filling these sites up.

We don’t underestimate the power of small and focused – just look at the success of millions of small blogs, but the “right people” that brands always refer to are hanging out in all of the “wrong” large and mass places as well.

Around the world, some of the names change, but the pattern is the same. We took a look at Facebook and the breakdown of the wealthy web in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. While local players round out the next 5 largest social sites in Europe, Facebook and YouTube absolutely dominate. As for the local sites that rank? Overwhelmingly they’re blog hosting sites or Facebook knockoffs.

So, for the luxury brands who are still afraid of the internet, and still refuse to participate, we only have one question: your customers are here, why aren’t you?

Click through for a breakdown of the top social sites on the wealthy Australian, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swiss web. For a breakdown of the top social sites on the affluent UK web, click here.

All infographics may be republished or reproduced with a live, followed link to this page.

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But with the rise in the senior citizen demographic came an issue that needs to be dealt with: what to do when a member passes away. So far, the methods of determining if a person is dead are somewhat iffy as they rely mostly upon other users to submit some kind of proof in a very roundabout way that someone has indeed passed away. The system’s flaws register in two very awkward instances: in the first, people are suggested to “reconnect” with a friend who has passed away but their Facebook profile has not been terminated. The result is a shocking experience for many, even being cited as “definitely a little creepy.” In another instance, someone’s Facebook account was deleted after someone submitted an obituary to Facebook employees, claiming that the member in question was dead. When the member found that his account had been deleted, he had trouble finding any page on the site that would help him to get his account back. Apparently, Facebook needs to add an “I’m not dead” section to their help page.

How do you handle digital ghosts?

Facebook is looking to use an algorithm to suggest when a Facebook member may have passed away. Phrases like “rest in peace” and “I miss you” would trigger the algorithm, bringing the profile to the attention of a staff member, who would then set to work investigating the source of the phrases. Of course, family members and friends would have the option of memorializing a profile in remembrance. The person’s personal information would be removed and the profile would become unsearchable, allowing friends and family to grieve in some form of privacy.

While Facebook still has not set forth a plan for dealing with members that have passed away, they are working on finding the best strategy to deal with such delicate situations. {New York Times}

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The problem? Those Gucci shoes aren't Gucci, Christian Iouboutin is a letter away from a lawsuit, and those bags are definitely fake

There have been some brands putting real effort into both. Take Louis Vuitton: shuttering eLuxury opened the door for several counterfeit sites who then had less competition from the legitimate brand for searches. On the paid search side, Louis Vuitton tried to sue Google for allowing advertisers to bid on their name, which is trademarked in many of the countries where they operate. The final ruling was that while individual advertisers could be penalized for misleading users, Google was not responsible for the content or practices of advertisers bidding on brand names.

We pointed out that while the ruling may have been a blow on the paid search side, larger problems were present in the unpaid search results because the counterfeit sites were better optimized than Louis Vuitton’s official site.

If for no other reason than performing well with visitors from search engines, and pushing replica sites further down, dropping eLuxury was a mistake. But the reason eLuxury closed was to put more effort into Nowness, a site curated by Jefferson Hack (publisher of fashion magazine Dazed & Confused). Nowness has an item a day format that doesn’t focus on any single brand, but a person or cultural event to offer a glimpse at the personality behind brands rather than pure product.

On Facebook, more than a million people have become fans of the Louis Vuitton Art of Travel page which features special notes to Facebook fans, behind the scenes videos and interviews with soccer legends Pele, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane (who also appear in the current advertising campaign). So while there are improvements that could be made, the Louis Vuitton online strategy is obviously not centered on suing counterfeit sites out of existence – though we’re sure it’s still part of the plan.

A Facebook ad for fake Christian Louboutin shoes

Other brands haven’t gotten the memo, and are still taking a defensive approach to participation online when they should be on the offense. One example? The company behind those infamous red soles, Christian Louboutin. They launched an entire site dedicated to showcasing crackdowns on Chinese factories manufacturing replica shoes. Unfortunately, the official site misses the mark for search, and even efforts like the recently launched US e-commerce site {Christian Louboutin US online store} are hobbled by huge, slow loading Flash-intros and animations. It’s obviously intended to be an experience site, but the experience isn’t good. There is a good effort on Facebook, where 250,000 fans are update about company announcements.

These efforts, however, are not enough to stop small and nimble counterfeit competitors, who have replica Christian Louboutin shoes, fake Louis Vuitton and Chanel bags and more appearing in Facebook ads, and organically in the news feeds of people targeted by interest. We’ve blacked out names to protect the innocent and the guilty, but in the photo of the fake Louis Vuitton, you can see the sheer number of users being targeted through photo tags. As those photos appear in the newsfeeds of friends, the counterfeit campaign becomes viral.

Big luxury may have the legal power, but it seems back alley bootleggers have the creativity.

Click to view more photos of counterfeit social media campaigns.

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Lady Gaga may be turning into a fashion fame monster, but apparently her “little monsters” (her nickname for fans) couldn’t care less. The 24-year-old pop star recently surpassed President Obama, Twilight and Starbucks in overall Facebook fans. Presently just over 10,300,000, it makes the singer the most popular living person on Facebook, and the first to cross the 10 million fan mark.

Who’s giving the Lady competition? The late King of Pop, Michael Jackson, for one – his fan count is at 14 million. But games seem tough to beat as well: Texas Hold ‘Em Poker and Mafia Wars have more than 20 million and 12 million fans respectively. {Famecount} If she really wanted to take advantage of this information, we’d suggest some sort of Texas Hold ‘Em Poker Face collaboration.

While she has yet to catch up to number one tweetstar Ashton Kutcher (he has 5.1 million followers to her 4.7 million), Lady Gaga’s social media success has been extraordinary. Last month, she became the first artist to amass 1 billion channel views on YouTube , once again surpassing tween America’s favorite vampires. Twilight Saga was at 980 million channel view, so they’re not far behind, but with the dark imagery in her Alejandro video, the competition is likely to stay neck and neck for a while (pun intended).

Still, Lady Gaga is shooting past everyone from Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift to former hot search Britney Spears and even the Beatles, so it seems clear that at least for a while the Lady leads social media.

While she may not be the richest on the list, that support could be part of the visibility that propelled her from unranked to #4 on Forbes’ Celebrity 100 listing of the most powerful celebrities. {Forbes}

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On June 21, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed rumors that the site would be launching location-based features sometime in the future. Continuing rumors are swirling that Facebook’s location-based features may be a ploy to pull users of sites like Foursquare, Brightkite, and Gowalla back into the Facebook world.{Mashable}

Dubbed “check-in” sites, Foursquare, Brightkite, and Gowalla were all created with the idea of people being able to learn about the resources in their community from other people in the community. Users “check-in” when they arrive at a destination and can offer comments about the location. Users can also browse locations close to them to find a new restaurant, bar, or other attraction.

But all of these location-based network sites may not be the best thing for users. Facebook users have been robbed after posting their plans in status updates. {CNN} Meanwhile, Twitter users have been hit in a similar manner. {Social Reflections} Apparently, disclosing your location in a Tweet or status update is like hanging a banner over your front door that says, “We’re not home. Please take all of our stuff!!” Quite frankly, it seems that stalkers will have an easier time stalking with location updates.

Looking back to the unrest in Iran after their disputed elections, many protesters used Twitter to organize and communicate. Following the protests, which often turned violent, groups of hackers claiming to be an “Iranian cyber army” hacked Twitter, Baidu and a number of other large sites, which could have potentially sensitive data about anti-government activists. With the planned location based updates, spying on users could now be as simple as following or friending them – no advanced technical skills required. While the threat to most Americans may not be in the form of a cyber army or violent militia, it’s only a matter of time before a more serious crime results from location updates.

We’re not ones to wear tin-foil hats, but it’s certainly worth remembering that when it comes to announcing your plans and location, not everyone who follows is a friend.

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