Facebook Says It Owns "Book"


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Facebook Says It Owns "Book"

"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."

Source - Slashdot

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https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/932938-facebook-says-it-owns-book/
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woops.. here goes the right to use any words in a name for a business. Soon no one will be able to make a new business without being sued from someone "owning" rights to a word out of the english dictionary.

So what? You can always call your company DSFASDFRAEGSECGRTHDTYBJHFGSC & Co.

Just playing devil's advocate here, but teachbook is obviously playing on facebook's name. the owners of teachbook also don't seem to have got the point, stating that they're "trying to understand how Facebook, a multibillion-dollar company, feels this small enterprise in Chicago is any type of threat.".

It isn't that they are a threat, it's that they're using a play on facebook's name to promote their own social networking site. Facebook said they have nothing against the company, and wish them the best, they just want them to change the name. That seems fair to me.

Plus Facebook's lawsuit is also going to give them more publicity than they could have dreamed of... maybe not the way they wanted it, but meh :)

For the record there is also a "TeacherTube" and Google/YouTube didn't get sour at that.

YouTube OWNS TeacherTube.

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