Figma, the popular collaborative design platform, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Lovable over the use of the term "Dev Mode."
We know this thanks to Lovable's Anton Osika, who shared the news on X. Here's a copy of the letter:
Lovable, if you don't know, is another one of those no-code, AI-driven platforms allowing users to build full-stack applications by simply describing what they want in natural language. Its recently launched "Dev Mode" feature allows users to edit code generated by the AI.
Figma, on the other hand, has been offering a feature called "Dev Mode" for a while now, designed to streamline the handoff between designers and developers.
Trademarking commonly used terms isn’t unusual in tech. Microsoft has "Windows" and Google has "Android," both examples of widely used words that have been legally protected.
But "Dev Mode" is also a pretty standard term across the tech industry. As Osika notes, tech giants like Atlassian, Wix, and Microsoft use it or its longer variation, "developer mode," across various products.
Over on X, reactions have been intense. Some users are calling Figma the "new Adobe," which isn’t a new comparison. The two companies were nearly tied together in 2022 when Adobe attempted to acquire Figma in a $20 billion deal, though that ultimately fell apart after regulators stepped in.
Others are accusing Figma of trying to claim ownership over a term that many see as community-driven and far too generic to be trademarked. Gergely Orosz pointed out that most people associate the feature with “Figma Dev Mode,” not just “Dev Mode” on its own. "Not buying Figma can own this generic term," he wrote.
Some users are taking it further. Jake Daynes tagged Canada’s IP office directly, calling the trademark filing "an INCREDIBLY common term used for decades" and asking when someone would step in to shut it down.
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