Not Content with Defending “Book” Facebook Tries to Trademark Face

Facebook already owns the trademark for their name, but for many outsiders their legal department is getting a bit too aggressive in defending it.

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.

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.