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By Daniel Davidson
It seems that with the age of technology, the simple definition of a book has seemed to have faded into 
the matrix. Talkbook (not a book) has filed a petition with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to cancel Facebook’s (also not a book) trademarks. This new approach to attack the billion dollar social network empire seems to be a tactic that could be called “get them before they get you.”
Talkbook, a long distance service provider for smart phone users, is challenging Facebook’s trademarks of “Facebook” and “The Facebook” by claiming that the company fraudulently obtained the trademarks. Talkbook accuses Facebook of misrepresenting on the application that certain features such as video sharing and instant messaging were available at the time they originally filed the application in 2004. A copy of the petition can be seen here.
This approach to battling the social network giant may prove to be a more cost effective avenue for Talkbook than filing a lawsuit.
Comments
Posted On
Jan 14, 2011Posted By
Tweets that mention YOU’RE NOT EVEN A BOOK! – DOES FACEBOOK HOLD A FRAUDULENT TRADEMARK? | TacticalIP.com -- Topsy.com[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Gwynne Monahan . Gwynne Monahan said: RT @PTOLawyer: check out the new post on TacticalIP.com: Talkbook files petition to cancel #Facebook #trademark: http://bit.ly/i81rzj [...]
Posted On
Jan 17, 2011Posted By
PatrickThis is actually a pretty serious issue. I don’t know the merits of Facebook’s trademark prosecution, but I remember shortly after I got out of lawschool, there was a landmark case on trademark prosecution inequitable conduct. Basically if your registration is for goods and services that the mark wasn’t used on, your registration can be canceled.
The fix is relatively easy, you just file a new application … but you do lose incontestability, and your original registration date (less of a concern for Facebook, more of a concern for a 100+ year old corporation that has maintained the same brands for a century …
Posted On
Jan 17, 2011Posted By
markmalekPatrick – good point, but don’t forget that Facebook is currently embroiled in several litigations over their precious name. Cancellation of their trademark will not go over too well for their litigation strategy. I think that there will be several companies in line filing trademark applications on either Face and/or Book in light of such a cancellation.
Posted On
Jan 17, 2011Posted By
PatrickAhh yes…. You see what I’m doing here? I’m gesturing a few things.. I’m picking up a stack of papers and blowing across them … What am I?
Right! I’m facebook’s trademark attorneys dusting off the professional liability policy … hope this is covered! (charades really doesn’t work online, does it?)