We’ve heard many reports of sites getting into trouble for sounding like Facebook in the past, and things might get interesting in the future as reports are in that Facebook has been granted a Notice of Allowance to trademark the word “Face”. The trademark covers usages in “Telecommunication services, namely, providing online chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users in the field of general interest and concerning social and entertainment subject matter, none primarily featuring or relating to motoring or to cars.” Aside from having to pay a fee within three months of today, the social networking giant will have to file a Statement of Use and use the trademark on its own in commerce before it has actual legal claim over the word “Face”. Sounds like it might be troublesome to name your social networking site to anything that sounds like Facebook in the future, eh?
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