Facebook sues start-up for using 'book' in name - Aug 2010
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Facebook is suing start-up site Teachbook.com for using the word "book" in its name, according to court documents. The complaint, filed in a California district court last Wednesday, alleges that Teachbook is "rid[ing] on the coattails of the fame and enormous goodwill of the Facebook trademark," said the document obtained by Wired.com.
Facebook, based in Palo Alto, accuses Teachbook of a slew of crimes including federal trademark dilution, trademark infringement and unfair competition. "We think the complaint speaks for itself," said Michael Rhodes, an attorney representing Facebook.
While Facebook doesn't claim to own rights to the word "book," it argues "if others could freely use 'generic plus BOOK' marks for online social networking services .... that would dilute the distinctiveness of the Facebook marks."
This isn't the first time Facebook has gone after small sites over the -book suffix. The travel site TripTrace -- once called PlaceBook -- detailed in a post how the social networking behemoth forced it to change its name. "We didn't believe anyone could own the word 'book' apart from 'face,'" reads a post on TripTrace's company blog. "We knew of a number of websites that had similar names that were clearly not copying Facebook: Cookbook, Blackbook, eBook, RunBook ... Racebook, Casebook, Tastebook." But the site acquiesced to Facebook because, "as a start-up we were in no position to fight."
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One more reason to hate facebook. They are money grubbing, corporate jack-booted thug lunatics.