Facebook Says It Owns 'Book' 483
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the first-book dept.
from the first-book dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Facebook has sued a tiny start-up called Teachbook.com over the use of 'book' in its name. The start-up, which has two employees, aims to provide tools for teachers to manage their classrooms and share lesson plans and other resources. 'Effectively they're bombing a mosquito here, and we're not sure why they want to do that,' Teachbook.com co-director Greg Shrader told the Tribune. Facebook said its use of 'book' in its name is 'highly distinctive in the context of online communities and networking websites.' Facebook apparently is alleging that no other online 'network of people' can use the word 'book' in its name without violating its trademark."
Give Me A Break! (Score:4, Insightful)
Time to get some books... (Score:2, Insightful)
uh what about this? (Score:5, Insightful)
http://www.fuckbook.com/ [fuckbook.com]
oh ffs (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh man, fuck off, Facebook, you giant corporate retard.
This trademark and patent stuff is getting beyond a joke. No-one will be able to do anything soon for fear of infringing on somethingorother from them or Amazon or Apple or MS or MPEG LA or blah blah because they claim they got to buttons or text or selling some bullshit first or some crap. No wonder innovation is drying up, piracy and sticking it to the man is rampant and no-one gives a toss about anything - everyone's too busy covering their own ass and hoping it will all magically go away.
There's protecting your innovation, trademarks, rights, etc. and then there's being a giant muppet. Facebook is a giant muppet.
fail (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:oh ffs (Score:2, Insightful)
No-one will be able to do anything soon for fear of infringing on somethingorother from them or Amazon or Apple or MS or MPEG LA or blah blah because they claim they got to buttons or text or selling some bullshit first or some crap
But isn't that what they want? The point when noone dares to do anything is reached, they are going to laugh coz they achieved their aim, namely you're not going to be able to use anything but their products...
Corporate Abuse (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Give Me A Break! (Score:5, Insightful)
Given that teachbook is a social networking site but for a specialized niche, I think it's fair to say that they are doing that. In my opinion they should have that right, though. Trademark law makes sense - other companies shouldn't be able to impersonate yours, but that should be limited to there being an actual chance of confusion. Doing something similar as someone else, and profiting from an established market - well that's just capitalism. Facebook can always compete by having a better product.
Facebook argues: If others could freely use 'generic plus BOOK' [...] the suffix BOOK could become a generic term for [...] 'social networking services'
Again, I think that's probably true but that is how language works, and they should have to live with that.
Well, stop doing it! (Score:3, Insightful)
Crap like this is the result of the US judicial system and your "elected" government. Your government enables this kind of rubbish. In the sentence before my last I surrounded elected with inverted commas. I did this because it seems to me as an outsider that the voice of the US people is incredibly diluted in US elections and things in general. Big business seems to have more of a say than individuals. There will be heaps of comments in this story saying how stupid it is, but your "elected" government doesn't care what you think -- it appears to care more about big business. What a load of shit. US, the land of opportunity? If you say so, but I am glad I don't live there. I'd rather pursue opportunity elsewhere in countries where opportunity really exists and is not an illusion created by a government. It's not facebook's fault that stuff like this can happen -- it's the US population's fault for _allowing_ it to happen.
Re:uh what about this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I don't think that TheFaceBook has much of a case, particularly as 'Phone Book' would seem to be their 'root' concept.
also... (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.pokebook.co.uk/ [pokebook.co.uk]
Re:Give Me A Break! (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only must they live with that (..BOOK being a generic term for social networking services), but if there's such an obvious association, they should be thankful that they will be getting free advertising indefinitely, the way the big G does every time someone tells you to go google something.
Re:Contact the EFF (Score:4, Insightful)
This would be called having them marked as a vexatious litigant.
Re:uh what about this? (Score:2, Insightful)
Ah, to be fuckbook.com's lawyer in drafting a reply...so many options.
10 bucks says they're based/hosted out of a country that doesn't give a hoot about US trademarks.
Re:You Fail (Score:5, Insightful)
How about -space as a social networking suffix? or -dot or -gadget for tech sites or the file- prefix for download sites?
At which point does an entity get to decide that it owns a random word that forms *part* of its name? Just because they're the biggest? It would seem that they're not the first, so that argument doesn't stand up. Why -book and not face-, or will the face- lawsuits be coming shortly?
Re:Give Me A Break! (Score:3, Insightful)
If facebook is going to try and muscle out the other bookies the mugbook is the place for them.
Re:Give Me A Break! (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought the phonebook was a way to look up your friends before facebook was. Or your little black book. Or your datebook. Or your yearbook. Or your address book.
Silly me.
Ummm... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:A few more they could go after (Score:3, Insightful)
not really. The word "book" in "teachbook" is a reference to facebook. When anyone hears "teachbook" they immedaiately think "facebook for teachers".
All of those sites are references to actual books.
Flamebait article, flamethrowing comments (Score:5, Insightful)
The legal concern isn't just that they're making a similar competing product, or that there will be confusion that Teachbook IS Facebook. The concern is that there will be confusion that Teachbook is a product of the Facebook team or that it is endorsed by Facebook or that it is affiliated with Facebook in any way. There are many families of products that share a particular element in their names, so it's not a far-fetched concern.
We've gone over this time and time again, for many different companies and products. Facebook is obliged by law to actively defend their trademark when the name of a competing product is similar and is in the same line of business. This is not a case where we can attribute any motivation to Facebook other than the fact that they're trying to carry out their legal obligations to retain their trademark. They risk losing the legal status of their trademark if they don't sue. Whether their claims are valid are for the courts to decide.
Other posts have said "what about this? What about that?" There are a few considerations to take. Did, e.g., Fuckbook file a trademark application for its name? Are cookbooks social networking sites? Some of the suggestions are simply absurd.
I mean, I hate trying to defend Facebook (indeed, I may even find Teachbook useful in a couple months' time), but you guys don't really have a problem with Facebook here. What you guys have a problem with is the law that requires Facebook to do stuff like this. But instead of recognizing this and having a meaningful conversation about whether or not trademark law is reasonable in its obligations, the editors allow flamebait articles like this on the site and get people all riled up not against the cause of the issue, but against only one of the many symptoms of the issue. Absolutely ridiculous. Quit feeding the trolls, guys.
Re:Don't they HAVE to? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Give Me A Break! (Score:0, Insightful)
This is the US. It's not about who is right, or what is sensible. It's about keeping the legal system rolling in cash while players waste their money on pissing contests.
Re:Give Me A Break! (Score:5, Insightful)
Or your old college face book.
Face book is a generic slang term for a yearbook.
Re:Give Me A Break! (Score:3, Insightful)
Since when is greed a mutually exclusive affair. Birds of a feather "do" flock together.
If the lawyers had been clued in, they could have forced the domain transfer the the domain name arbitration process for less than $5 as soon as you said you'd be willing to exchange it for anything - NEVER say that you are willing to seill/give it up. There are ways of wording it so that you are open to an *unsolicited* bid.
Re:A few more they could go after (Score:1, Insightful)
its not what I immediately think, course I dont have my head jammed up my own ass
Re:Flamebait article, flamethrowing comments (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Give Me A Break! (Score:4, Insightful)
do you think they would have named it teachbook, if there was no such thing as facebook? Seriously?
Re:Flamebait article, flamethrowing comments (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Books.com - Barnse and Noble 1992 (Score:3, Insightful)
"Facebook doesn't have a leg to stand on"
Neither do you, really. Facebook have to defend their trademark to keep it. If they "lose" this case, they haven't actually lost the case; what has been shown is that 'teachbook' doesn't infringe the trademark, therefore, nobody can use the fact that 'teachbook' exists as a defence against their new trademark infringing name. If facebook don't go after it, and it is later shown that teachbook does infringe, but facebook didn't go after them, then facebook loses trademark rights.
This isn't really facebook's 'fault' here, this is just a consequence of how the law works. Facebook loses their trademark if they don't establish whether teachbook infringes or not, and stop it's use if it is found to be.
Still I do find myself wondering whether they would be calling their site 'teachbook' if 'facebook' didn't exist. They'd probably be calling it 'teachspace' instead. It does sound a little copycatty to me, but this is for the courts to decide.