TechCrunch brings us a little bit more news about Facebook. It is in court once again. PlaceBook and TeachBook have no part in it this time. The business isn’t in trouble for using the word “book” in its name. Now, Facebook is trying to trademark the word “face,” picking up where U.K. company CIS Internet Limited left off in 2008. Facebook bought an application that was trademarked by CIS and now wants to move on. Trademarks are important to corporate branding, but from time to time it is too much. The word “ganja” was once in a court case for trade marking. The site Fark.com once attempted to trademark “NSFW.”. Snookie from “The Jersey Shore” also tried to trademark her nickname. Facebook will lose face just like the rest of them for their waste of the legal system’s time.
Aaron Greenspan doesn’t approve
Aaron Greenspan doesn’t think Facebook should be trying to trademark “face.” Aaron Greenspan claims to have made facebook with Mark Zuckerberg. Greenspan would end up having to pay Facebook if Facebook gets its “face” trademark because of the mobile payment app called FaceCash that Greenspan’s company, Think Computer, created. So would Apple, whose Facetime video calling app seems on the iPhone 4. Products use the word “face” in them all the time. Greenberg, and others, hope to be able to use this name nevertheless without paying.
Facebook needs to move on now
When thinking about how aggressive Facebook has been within the past, it seems unlikely that “face” can be too big to it. Facebook has bigger fish to fry. Zuckerberg will be on the case of any person using “face.” Even those who just are innocently creating a fun game, but do not want to make money, will need to be careful. Think of John Travolta and Nicolas Cage in the film “Face/Off,” or the characters within the Kobo Abe novel “Face of Another.”. There is a big dispute. Is all this over faces? Then there is the “Dune” books. A Tleilaxu face dancer would have to be worried.
Further reading
FACE
tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial and amp;entry=78980756
TechCrunch
techcrunch.com/2010/08/26/trademark-face/
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark