Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Says It Owns 'Book'
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."
Perhaps next they'll go after everyone who uses the words cookbook, handbook, and textbook.
...and go throw them at Facebook.
No one has registered apostropheDot.com yet!
At last we are shown the Facebook business model. Who knew there were so many people to sue?
Burns: We're building a casino!
McAllister: Arrr. Give me 5 minutes.
http://www.fuckbook.com/
Anyone else read this wrong as "bombing a mosque"?
Resistance is futile.
Anyone else read this wrong as "bombing a mosque"?
No, I did not read it wrong...
But I guess Facebook doesn't realize yet that Muslims have a Holy Book. The religions of the world will be sued next week.
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.
Year book
Not a patent, but a trademark case/suit. Different fish, same stink when rotten.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
I hope facebook looses a shit ton of money over this.
Did some peeking on the wayback machine... domain names that were registered before facebook launched: flybook.com sportsbook.com buybook.com computerbook.com skybook.com Perhaps the most damning, though.... Buddybook.com.. this is from way back in 1999: "Welcome to Buddy Book.com, an innovative internet address book which helps keep track of all your online experiences." http://web.archive.org/web/19991128035308/http://buddybook.com/ It's not that similar to facebook, true... but it's a 'social' thing, which by their own logic, seems to be close enough... whoever owns that site ought to sue them!
they should call themselves EasyBook.
Teachbook appears to be a social/community website, close to the area of what Facebook does. I would think that the "teachbook" name was chosen on purpose to be "facebook for teachers/teaching". Well, you can't do that without facebook going after you. IANAL so I don't know if facebook can or should prevail, but it seems to me that they sort of have a point.
Now, contrast this to a previous action of facebook: http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/10/facebook-placebook/
They went after a startup travel website, i.e. a site for you to book vacations in the places you visit called... well... placebook! I mean who better for the name placebook than a site where you book... places... The site in question had, in the end, to back down and change their name to triptrace: http://blog.triptrace.com/2010/08/19/we-tell-the-world-placebook-is-now-triptrace/ . Now THAT was ridiculous.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Normally I would be strongly opposed to that kind of thing but since Facebook appears to have completely lost the plot it seems we are facing the rare situation where a book burning is warranted.
The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
'Effectively they're bombing a mosquito here, and we're not sure why they want to do that,'
The cynic in my thinks that the legal team wants a couple of easy wins under their belt and set a precedent for future disputes. Two educators working on a web site won't be able to stand up to Facebook's lawyers.
Well yes it appears to be just a "teachers" version of facebook really.. way too close for facebook itself to ignore..
They're just (unnecessarily) buying themselves a whole bunch of aggravation by trading off the similarity in name recognition by hovering in the same domain.
Others with WAY different applications such as www.redbook.com and www.bluebook.com would be well out of facebook's aim however.
They shouldn't complain too hard. Before Facebook sued them I had never heard of the web site. Now I know about them. Free publicity!
The trouble is of course if Facebook really wants to bring it to court they may have a problem fighting it even though it sounds to me like a nonsense suit from Facebook's side.
http://www.theholybook.org/ (I would be very surprised if they did, as it would give the "religion of peace" an opportunity to show their own method of objection again)
http://flushaholybook.com/
http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/
http://www.chooseandbook.nhs.uk/
http://www.hotelbook.com/
http://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/
http://adoptabook.bl.uk/
http://www.easytobook.com/
http://www.bid4abook.co.uk/
http://www.nielsenbook.co.uk/
That's just a few of them.
I wonder if they will go after the telecoms - after all, phonebook is a kind of huge listing of phone-using community...
And how is this tiny, 2 employee company supposed to defend itself? No matter how right it is, 2 people will be bankrupted in no time. This is the nature of our corporate-owned country, inhabited by masochistic neo conservatives who want giant, faceless institutions with no obligation to anyone to step all over them like cockroaches. With the power of our vote we could use the government as a tool to protect the little guy from those with the resources to do almost anything they want. Instead we have Obama, the most conservative "Democrat" in the history of our country, to lead us to... what exactly?
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.
According to Facebook:
"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,'" Facebook argued in the lawsuit. "That would dilute the distinctiveness of the Facebook Marks."
Of course, the generic suffix "book" that they speak of has long been in the "public domain"; i.e. "Year book" (from which Facebook stole the idea. In fact Facebook used to only be available to people with school-based email addresses). Then there are the other historic generics like textbook, flip book, scrap book, etc and so on.
Too bad that in these cases the courts tend to rule in favour of the rich and famous instead of the fair. People with "Mc" in their names are screwed if they want to start ANY type of business (restaurant or not) because McDonald's has always been an asshole about the issue, and the courts have favoured the asshole. With Nissan things are better, but the legal costs and time (in years, going through the court system) have been horrendous.
In summary: if you're poor your screwed. If you can afford millions of dollars for lawyers then you may be able to get your way.
OK, every now and then I've heard of the "letter of the law" vs. the "spirit of the law" with regards to arguments like this, but rarely does it stoop to the "uber-rich-greedy-asshole-who-wants-even-more" level of interpretation...
Companies like Facebook should really take a moment to realize that 15 minutes of fame doesn't apply to just Hollywood anymore. Keep tempting fate with douchebag moves like this, and they'll soon find out.
http://www.pokebook.co.uk/
one was yesterday, riaa crap was the day before. i was telling that its not that these copyright, patent, tm systems are 'exploited', its that they ARE exploitative and unworkable. and some people were saying that i was trolling.
every day another bullshit comes up because of these. what point does things have to come to, for some of you people to understand a SYSTEM is wrong, or unworkable ?
Read radical news here
Come on Diaspora, give these bullies a run for their money so they know that they're not the only kids in the sandpit.
Someone needs to start a facebook group about boycotting facebook!
Domain Name: TEACHBOOK.COM
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.enom.com
Referral URL: http://www.enom.com/
Name Server: NS1.M446.SGDED.COM
Name Server: NS2.M446.SGDED.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 12-mar-2010
Creation Date: 29-jan-2007
Expiration Date: 29-jan-2011
They should call this whole affair "Facebookgate".
Set your phasers on "funky"!
This would be called having them marked as a vexatious litigant.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
And so it begins. Bitchbook better stay parked, it has no chance.
Considering that the url would be http://cookbook./ you are in serious trouble.
If part of a site's name may not be used if that part has been used elsewhere, then no url can contain a slash or a dot without violating Slashdot's trademark.
Or, more interesting, sites that use facebook's name to generate traffic?
On second thought, let's not go to Camelot. It is a silly place.
A training platform with e-learning, collaboration, student management and virtual community tools. Its first version came out in 1998. Wonder if they'll go back in time and sue us.
thisreallyisnotfacebook.com
Hmmm, does anyone remember if Apple sued Google over iGoogle?
Zuckerberg, is that you?
...facepalm!
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?
I know others have said it but I want to say it again: Facebook is right. I know this reality hurts your mantra of hating Facebook, but they're right. Unlike the misleading story summary, Facebook is not claiming that they own "book". Facebook is claiming that they own "book" in the context of social networking sites. That's the difference between going after Teachbook.com and libraybooks.com. To me, "Teachbook.com" automatically suggests a social networking site, and one that might even be associated with Facebook. It'd be like if I started a computer company called Local Business Machines. And sure, they're just poor old teachers. But the way trademark law works is that you must actively defend your trademarks. If Facebook lets this one slide, the next one to come along will be collegebook.com or friendbook.com. When Facebook goes after them the judge will say, "obviously you don't care about your trademark because you set a precedent with teachbook.com. Case denied."
Not a patent, but a trademark case/suit.
Proof of acceptance as a generic will invalidate a trademark. As such, "year book" is a valid defense against the suit. It is prior, but as you indicate, prior art doesn't matter, but proof of generic use of the word does. And year book and phone book and face book indicate a generic nature to "book" at the end, and the fact that facebook purposefully took "book" because of the generic nature of year book would seem to indicate that the "prior art" invalidates their trademark over "book."
Learn to love Alaska
They should sue bimbook.com. Not because of the book thing but because it confounds people by cleansing and thus diluting their filthy business. I for one was looking for OK bimbos but didn't get any there.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
"Social networking website" is nearly every website in existence these days to some extent.The idea of using a computer to let people communicate as a group long predates Facebook, MySpace, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, or Friendster.
Wasn't teaching associated with books long before "social networking?"
Download free e-books, lectures, and tutorials at bookgoldmine.com
With FrostyPiss as a nickname...good possibility. I thought the same thing.
Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
9 times out of 10, probably more like 999 times out of a 1000, I'll heartily agree that a company is being an ass about similar naming. Monster comes to mind as the biggest bad guy in this arena - going after anyone whether there is a clear association with electronic cables or not. Microsoft's laughable attempt to trademark Windows a decade or so ago. Apple's iFetish. The list of tech companies that have attempted to abuse trademark is very long.
This is different. I think anyone not ideologically bound to hate on big companies or maniacal about "information wants to be free" will see that Teachbook is trying to capitalize on Facebook's brand recognition. If I tried to create an online journalling site called Daybook.com, then Facebook wouldn't have a case. But a social networking site with the same name extension? C'mon - only those who wish to be obtuse about electronic freedom can't admit that this is clearly infringement.
seg fault
No book in that name. I'm safe!
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
I wonder if Facebook has ever heard about Fijibook: effectively a facebook for Fijians.
Why -book and not face-, or will the face- lawsuits be coming shortly?
All the other 'face-' sites are (supposedly) bukkake sites. Although you could view a 100-on-1 cumfest as 'social networking' it's hardly competition to the fuckfest that Facebook is...
Besides, trademark only protects the exact name and alternate spellings that are so close they might be confused. So 'vasebook' is out of the question if you want to start a site about vases...
But at some point corporations lawyers decided they *own* regular words used by them, books, apples, you, me, I, etc. it's a long stretch to fall under trademarks, but it's not about right-of-law, it's about right-of-most-cash.
http://xkcd.com/624/
Simple fix, they just have to rename themselves to teachhub or something... hawt.
I support public education... I married a teacher.
I believe spad said it best "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?" Oh well lets just go ahead and throw this in the court system and let someone make a coin over it, I'm sure someone in there is needing a few extra dollars they are going to make from this.
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.
There go my plans for fuckbook where you can find new friends to screw and play fuckville and fuckwars.
Well screw 'em Facebook can't have an account. The fuckers.
Easy, in 1988 when McDonald's counter sues (and wins) against McSleep.
This is not my sig
What about the double-threats of spacebook.com, mybook.com, or facespace.com?
Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
If Faceboook were just a startup, without a worldwide recognition, would they have sued anyone that way? Obvious answer: no.
Obvious consequence: being rich and recognized makes you more stupid. How sad.
So they wind up & pursuade facebook that they ought to throw them some money on a frivolous action.
There are 54 matches in /usr/share/dict, though facebook isn't one of them.
$ grep .book$ /usr/share/dict/words | xargs echo
bankbook blankbook bluebook boobook cabook casebook cashbook chapbook checkbook classbook cookbook copybook daybook doombook dopebook guidebook handbook handybook herdbook hornbook hymnbook jestbook landbook lawbook logbook matchbook needlebook notebook outbook overbook passbook playbook pocketbook pollbook promptbook rebook roadbook schoolbook scorebook scrapbook shopbook sketchbook songbook spaebook storybook studbook stylebook talebook textbook tithebook waybook wordbook workbook yearbook
I BET they don't want to do this, too many people own faces!
You can't handle the truth.
I know slashdot's all about the underdog, but doesn't Facebook HAVE to defend it's trademark legally, to at least have a footing to stop any general encroachment or watering down of their legal standing in the future? That doesn't mean that they can't come to some amicable arrangement quickly for a trivial amount, but I think they have to defend it.
-Styopa
Beats Facebook (1997) by 5 years - so according to Facebook's logic, Barnes and Noble are the REAL owners, and Facebook has to change their name
Domain Name.......... books.com
Creation Date........ 1992-10-09
Registration Date.... 2009-09-27
Expiry Date.......... 2010-11-20
Organisation Name.... barnesandnoble.com llc
Organisation Address. 76 Ninth Avenue, 9th Floor
Organisation Address. 76 9th Avenue, 9th floor
Organisation Address. New York
Organisation Address. 10011
Organisation Address. NY
Organisation Address. UNITED STATES
Admin Name........... Paul Karatzas
Admin Address........ 76 Ninth Avenue, 9th Floor
Admin Address........
Admin Address........ New York
Admin Address........ 10011
Admin Address........ NY
Admin Address........ UNITED STATES
Admin Email.......... domainadmin@BOOK.COM
Admin Phone.......... +1.2124146000
Admin Fax............ +1.2124146150
Tech Name............ Paul Karatzas
Tech Address......... 76 Ninth Avenue, 9th Floor
Tech Address.........
Tech Address......... New York
Tech Address......... 10011
Tech Address......... NY
Tech Address......... UNITED STATES
Tech Email........... domainadmin@BOOK.COM
Tech Phone........... +1.2124146000
Tech Fax............. +1.2124146150
Name Server.......... NS4.BARNESANDNOBLE.COM
Name Server.......... NS3.BARNESANDNOBLE.COM
Name Server.......... MAIL9TH1.BARNESANDNOBLE.COM
Name Server.......... NS2.BARNESANDNOBLE.COM
Do you think they'll come after me for bookbook.com?
It's a social networking site for chickens...
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
In my experience, a directory/book for private high schools and colleges which shows a head-shot of each student and faculty member, gives their address on campus and their home address, has been called a "Facebook" for a long time. And seeing as Facebook was originally open to only .edu users, I'm pretty sure that was the idea.
That's what it was called at the school I attended in the early 90's anyway.
Um, citation necessary, if a person uses their real name, they get guaranteed right to do so. Mike Rowe only lost his because it included Soft in the name of his store, thus causing conniptions for MS. Had he been using MikeRowe.com, he would've been fine.
Change the name to asocialnetworkingsiteforteachersbecausefacebookissuingus.com
Better not tell 'em what NASA's site is called, then.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
NASA runs an internal site called SpaceBook. Facebook has to watch it's image with the new movie coming out.
There go my plans for fuckbook where you can find new friends to screw and play fuckville and fuckwars.
Well screw 'em Facebook can't have an account. The fuckers.
Umm... They already have that:
http://www.fuckbook.com/
The fact that it's a little known fact is a defence in itself to any trademark claim you might bring (since nobody's going to confuse my being human with your ownership of the concept of being human if it's little known that you own said concept), so thanks :)
So, a web company that ripped off it's name from somewhere else, who in turn ripped off a generic term for annual, is OK, trying to sue somebody that's in a different market because they claim to own every generic + book that deals with people? I'm sorry, but that's an asshole move at best, trademarking somebody else's idea and then using it to bludgeon other outfits for money.
What like Facepalm?
addresbook.com
You may want to go to Amazon (you know, that 'book' place) and buy a 'spelling book' (aka a 'dictionary'). Do you need their web address?
There could easily be confusion if people believe that the smaller site is in some way affiliated with the larger - it doesn't have to be an identical name, quite often a big company will be umbrella to smaller offshoots who use some derivative of the name, so it's not a huge to stretch to think, if Facebook ever did a teacher specific site, that they'd use the name Teachbook. More importantly, actual confusion is only one aspect of such a claim, the courts take many other criteria into account. And since the law is rooted in tort and principles of equity, they'll certainly be looking at the smaller site's motives in choosing the name - do you honestly believe they didn't choose the name to piggyback off the popularity of Facebook? After all "Teachbook" is meaningless. If you take a name that's close to another's trademark specifically to associate your business with theirs, don't be surprised if the court finds you weren't exactly acting with clean hands.
You seem a little confused. The entity doesn't get to decide anything - the courts do. The entity can only bring the challenge before them. Looking at it another way, at which point is it fair for an entity to defend it's business? If not the pretty specific "*book+social networking" then what, would you allow Fasebook? Fácebook? Facebook but with a slightly different hue of blue? How close is too close?
Quickbooks (the accounting software) has been around for quite a while; also workbook and workbooks (in the accounting and Excel) sense has been around. Also, I believe the term "facebook" has been around forever in the sense of a freshman book of photos. which is of course where facebook (tm) (r) (patented) (etc) got the term.
LOL. They should ask Monster Cable about how this worked out: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081212/1622033110.shtml Monster Cable actually filed a trademark infringement suit against Cookie Monster at one point. Good luck with that, Facebook! TAN5TAAFL
So all of these other perfectly good English words had better beware the wrath of Facebook:
bankbook, bluebook, casebook, cashbook, chapbook, checkbook, cookbook, copybook, daybook, domebook, guidebook, handbook, herdbook, hornbook, hymnbook, kabook, lawbook, logbook, matchbook, needlebook, notebook, passbook, playbook, pocketbook, pollbook, promptbook, schoolbook, scrapbook, shopbook, sketchbook, songbook, storybook, studbook, stylebook, tablebook, textbook, wastebook, wordbook, workbook, yearbook
Some of these already have .com domains with memberships and features like "friends", photo sharing, etc. Let's hope someone throws the book at Facebook over this.
Is this sig nificant?
Why can't we have an "append update to post" function? Put a time-stamp on it if you're worried about people gaming the system.
There's protecting your innovation, trademarks, rights, etc. and then there's being a giant muppet. Facebook is a giant muppet.
I think you'll find that muppet is copyrighted, trademarked and patented ;-)
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
we wouldn't have to worry about those mom and pop scandals riding someone else's coattails by just adding -gate to the end of their name.
I suppose they also own "face" so using expressions like "face time" will land you in court. Or maybe it's only if it's one word: "facetime." Perhaps they've got the patent on the little tiny space in between words. Pam http://www.talksocialnews.com/
Are they also going to sue face.com? http://www.face.com/
Didn't WordPerfect try this shit also?
anyone else feel that facebook is a reversion to the AOL days? Too bad they can't provide a browser within the browser - and that dial up isn't so popular anymore.
Maybe they should go after yearbook.com too. Registered in '95 actually, way prior to facebook, and even uses facebook connect, or you can sign in with myspace or twitter too. And it's definately social networking, aimed at high school kids (remember facebook was originally aimed at college students). Whois Record Related Domains For Sale or At Auction GolfYearbook.com ($1,688) MilitaryYearbook.com ($1,888) YearbookReview.com ($1,895) WebYearbook.com ($1,888) NationalYearbook.com ($688) IYearbooksInc.net (Bid) YearbookForum.com ($1,688) StaffYearbook.com ($688) InternetYearbook.com ($1,588) YearbookSoftware.com ($300) YearbookManager.com ($1,200) YearbookCenter.com ($380) YearbookSurvey.com ($480) GraduateYearbook.com ($300) BonnarooYearbook.com (Bid) YearbookCamp.com ($350) GreenYearbook.com ($1,650) YearbookWorkshop.com ($1,888) MyCoolYearbook.com (Bid) 1 2 3 4 More > Reverse Whois: "Insider Guides, Inc." owns about54 other domains Email Search: is associated with about 52 domains Registrar History: 4 registrars NS History: 2 changes on 3 unique name servers over 3 years. IP History: 8 changes on 8 unique name servers over 5 years. Whois History: 211 records have been archived since 2004-03-08 . Reverse IP: 2 other sites hosted on this server. Log In or Create a FREE account to start monitoring this domain name DomainTools for Windows® Now you can access domain ownership records anytime, anywhere... right from your own desktop! Download Now> Registrant: Insider Guides, Inc. 280 Union Square Drive New Hope, PA 18938 US Domain Name: YEARBOOK.COM Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Insider Guides, Inc. Domain Administrator 280 Union Square Drive New Hope, PA 18938 US (215)862-1162 (215)862-1655 [fax] Domain created on 03-Jan-1995 Domain expires on 02-Jan-2022 Last updated on 24-May-2010 Domain servers in listed order: PDNS1.ULTRADNS.NET PDNS2.ULTRADNS.NET PDNS3.ULTRADNS.ORG PDNS4.ULTRADNS.ORG PDNS5.ULTRADNS.INFO PDNS6.ULTRADNS.CO.UK
Free Pie! The Pie is Also Evil!
I put Facebook on my shitlist.
After Rupert Murdock said that he owns the word Sky thus suing Skype, I bet that the website skybook is in deep shit and will be next in line to be sued by both Sky and Facebook.
This site - PlaceBook - got sued earlier this month: http://blog.triptrace.com/2010/08/02/facebook-stomps/ (www.placebook.com) Their blog gives a solid backstory and the YouTube Place Book video is a crackup. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AW3tYWtEn0 But they changed their name last week.
...the google motto. I mean like in the early days when Google was following it.
"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"
Hmm... I wonder why Facebook might think a start-up with two employees has enough potential that they need to take the situation seriously. There must be some reason; maybe something from their past.
The size of the offending company just doesn't have anything to do with anything. Either they're violating a trademark or they're not; just because youre small doesn't mean you get a free pass, and it doesn't mean failure to defend the trademark wouldn't be an expensive mistake for FB to make.
So I'm safe to launch facenook.com
What about "ace" - that's in "facebook", too. Or "ok"?
Also, the *book syntax has been around for a long time in teaching software, longer than I remember facebook being popular. Two examples I can think of off the top of my head that I've seen teachers using are "gradebook" and "markbook"
FB really doesn't have a case here, and hopefully the defendants have enough cash to fight back... (and hopefully the jurisdiction in question has SLAPP laws).
An apocryphal story says that the judge threw out the case, asking, "who are you going to sue next, Disneyland?" Disneyland is mentioned in this article, but not in the context of the decision.
I hope they throw the book at them......
e.g. http://www.forbes.com/2007/10/05/lawsuits-litigation-sba-ent-cx_ll_1005lawsuit.html
Actually Mike Rowe never lost anything, he made an out of court agreement with Microsoft. No one knows if he or Microsoft would have won the court case if it had gone that far. Now, Mike Rowe did make one major mistake. In his initial response to Microsoft he had asked how much they would offer for the domain, which put him potentially in violation with the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.
Facebook launches their "Places" service that is functionally the same as "Foursquare"'s service. Facebook's logo for "Places"? A four in a square. A FOUR IN A SQUARE. And they have the balls to go after somebody for "diluting" their trademark on a generic term for a yearbook, by using the word "book". Simply incredible. I hope they lose and have to pay a legal costs and a few million in punitive damages.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
anybody who would start a corporation using the root word from the old complaint, "dude, am I faced!" probably has no knowledge of firms like "x Booksellers", "x Book Store," "Book Nook," "Wise Book Publishing Co." and the like.
we can only hope they are barred from trademarking company names containing either "face" or "book."
incidentally, I think all the letters of the alphabet have been used before, as well. I think the whole site should be open sourced.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
How many corps in the 70s+ had SOFT or software at the end of their names?
Clearly nobody went around stopping that...
Then there are fads with COM, COMM, Bell, mart, tree, micro, tech, sys, systems, .com....
compuglobalhypermeganet.net
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
http://www.facespace.com/
There goes my plan to name my social networking site comeonherfacebook.com!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/25/mcdonalds-lawyers-italian-restaurant-name
Therefore, I'm planning on making an eBook reader just to name it a McBook*. If enough heavyweight lawyers at McDonalds, Facebook, and Apple descend on me they may collapse into a black hole.
* Pronounced "em cee book" of course.
Too stupid; didn't read.
It's not the yearbook, it's the book of incoming freshmen released at the start of school. It makes it easy to, for example, figure out the last name of the hottie you met yesterday by looking up all the girls named "Lisa" and seeing which one looks like the one you remember. It often even has a first name index to make finding people you've just met easier.
Common at small colleges / liberal arts schools across the US.
I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
PHq-em
go after F-u-c-kbook, I get spammed by them constantly
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I'd like to see some lawyer from FaceBook(TM)® try to tell the nice officer at the front desk of the 68th precinct in Brooklyn to stop calling it that.
"Fuggedaboutid! We got a room in the back where you'z can go and sober up. It ain't a request bub. Get your ass back there ... NOW!"
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
So if me and some fellow chefs where to start a community called cookbook we are stepping on some sizzy tones?
Existing site: http://www.cookbooks.com/cookbooks_recipes/index.asp The whois information for this site:
Record expires on 30-Apr-2019.
Record created on 29-Apr-1995.
Database last updated on 26-Aug-2010 13:26:22 EDT.
If I was teachbook, I would point to this site and tell facebook to fuck off.
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
Isn't there somewhere a rule that punishes lawyers for frivolous lawsuits? No?
Well, that's at least one industry that hasn't gone to hell in the crisis then..
Insert
"If I was teachbook"
they would be doomed.
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
Hey man thiz is Zuck. I'm starting this MyBook.com thing furz wen I lozer the lawsuit over pwning the FaceBook. U wanna partner with me?
I'd love to see facebook sue Khwan book. The Jihad unleashed on them would be delightful.
I was going to say, "does it matter, if they've got a registered trademark", ... but it does.
Trademarks can be opposed, and even cancelled. From Wikipedia:
Opposing a trademark is either a prelude to a civil suit, or undertaken during/after one. ... so given that preexisting trademarks did not oppose the registry of Facebook, in a few years, it could become "incontestable".
Note also that Facebook has a number of registered trademarks of "Facebook" (SN 77189479, 78981126, 78962629, 77125103) although SN 78920322 is probably the 'main' one. (And yes, it's a kitchen sink 'goods and services' mark, as the GP said.) While some of these marks were filed in 2010, many of them were filed in 2006. Want to challenge? Got a short window, and a big set of lawyers to hurdle...
Whats next, apple trademarking the letter i?
By exclusively condemning TeachBook.com, FaceBook sends us a clear message that the company fully commends web sites like HotFuckBook.com and FaceBookofSex.com...
I am getting sick of imaginary property lawsuits. They are unimaginative, and the only people that benefit from them are lawyers at the expense of people who want to give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. Crooks run the world. In the olden times people would form an angry mob with pitch forks and torches and stab the asinine lawyers in the face. Too bad everyone is too brainwashed by American Idol and Survivor in general to do anything about it. Television is the greatest crowd control system ever... and somehow they found a way to make people pay to watch it.
So screw you Facebook....
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/08/25/0436219/LucasFilm-Sues-Jedi-Mind-Over-Jedi Facebook is now playing the copycat game! I really expected better from them....... oh wait, i forgot the whole issue with the privacy settings! this is EXACTLY what they would do!
Smoking cures cancer. Smoking also cures stupidity. check darwinawards . com for some stupid stuff
...that lawyers are simply bored out of their minds, trying to find something to do to pass the time.
I am not devoid of humor.