Facebook tries to copyright the words face and book!
26th November 2010
,26th November 2010
,The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has this week granted the social media giant Facebook a "notice of allowance" to trade mark the word "face".
Apparently Facebook have a history of going after anyone who use "face" or "book" in their name - UTalkMarketing cites examples such as Teachbook and Faceporn.
Whilst I think it's crazy to consider letting a company copyright two separate dictionary words (they should have gone down the Google route maybe!) the other part of the report that stood out to me - was what are people doing calling their website Teachbook or Faceporn anyway?! Actually, I suppose in the case of the Face one, they're just going for a laugh and it was probably a joke spin off of Facebook. But Teachbook - "a professional community for teachers" could have come up with a more original name.
I always think it's really lazy of any business to copy another - take inspiration from, yes, but match the name of? That means you haven't got any imagination or ingenuity and so - to my mind - probably shouldn't be starting a business. As they're valuable assets to anyone wanting to set up their own company, let alone website.
Although, maybe I'm wrong, because I can remember Teachbook's name...
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