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Sporkman
November 24th, 2010, 07:09 PM
Patent Office Agrees To Facebook’s “Face” Trademark

Alexia Tsotsis
19 hours ago

Facebook is just a payment away from trademarking the word “Face.” As of today the U.S. Patent And Trademark Office has sent the social networking site a Notice of Allowance, which means they have agreed to grant the “Face” trademark to Facebook...

http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/23/patent-office-agrees-to-facebooks-face-trademark/

endotherm
November 24th, 2010, 07:12 PM
at what point will we realize that those who profit off imaginary property need to be abandoned on a small island, to starve.

czr114
November 24th, 2010, 07:19 PM
Appalling.

How can people who care about liberty or privacy in the information age still associate with this company?

(As Stallman rightly pointed out, members are not Facebook's customers, they are its product.)

madjr
November 24th, 2010, 07:29 PM
this is werid because they have been taking to court and suing everyone that has the word "book" in it.

now they'll be able to sue everything that has a face... you, me, everyone!

would be cool if they sue apple over the term "face"-time

3Miro
November 24th, 2010, 07:33 PM
I am just waiting for the day when I will have to initial a point on some document and I will be taken to jail for copyright infringement. My initials are MS

alexfish
November 24th, 2010, 08:27 PM
Lets Face it ,

get out of that Facebook

Next

book

Lets book it,

Lets reverse it

bookFace it Facebook

Total raving Lunaticism

it can only happen in you Know Where

_outlawed_
November 24th, 2010, 08:31 PM
Incoming lawsuits against Webster Dictionary for having the word "Face" and "Book" inside it.

Incoming lawsuits against hotels and airlines for the term "booking" rooms and flights.

nolag
November 24th, 2010, 08:42 PM
Don't worry, the patent is ONLY for "Telecommunications services". I guess there will be no more "face to face conversations" on video chat that's all...COME ON... I don't know if that is worse than the fact that have a patent for "Ranking search results based on the frequency of clicks on the search results by members of a social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation". Now no one can say your friends like this maybe you will...unless...anyone want to create a social network that does not include "...a server computer and a database of registered users, a method for generating search results for display at a user computer in response to a search query transmitted to the server computer by a registered user from the user computer..." we can write it all on paper XD

handy
November 24th, 2010, 08:47 PM
This is another one of those things that fall into the do-da category.

philinux
November 24th, 2010, 08:48 PM
Facepalm.

:rolleyes:

endotherm
November 24th, 2010, 08:48 PM
Don't worry, the patent is ONLY for "Telecommunications services". I guess there will be no more "face to face conversations" on video chat that's all...COME ON... I don't know if that is worse than the fact that have a patent for "Ranking search results based on the frequency of clicks on the search results by members of a social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation". Now no one can say your friends like this maybe you will...unless...anyone want to create a social network that does not include "...a server computer and a database of registered users, a method for generating search results for display at a user computer in response to a search query transmitted to the server computer by a registered user from the user computer..." we can write it all on paper XD
technically it's a trademark. same reason my user name can't be "Coca-cola".

Marlonsm
November 24th, 2010, 08:50 PM
I was going to insert a facepalm image here, but I'm not sure I'm allowed anymore...

The US patent office really needs some big changes. It was initially made to protect individuals who had great ideas, now it's being used mostly by big companies to attack each other.

_outlawed_
November 24th, 2010, 08:54 PM
What's funny is this:

Microsoft tried to claim "windows". Failed. Unethical and Unconstitutional.
Apple tried to claim "apple". Failed. Unethical and Unconstitutional.
Adobe tried to claim "flash". Failed. Unethical and Unconstitutional.

Facebook has taken claim to both "book" and soon "face". Success. ???????????


It looks like Facebook has paid off people in the patent office for this.

endotherm
November 24th, 2010, 08:57 PM
I was going to insert a facepalm image here, but I'm not sure I'm allowed anymore...

The US patent office really needs some big changes. It was initially made to protect individuals who had great ideas, now it's being used mostly by big companies to attack each other.
actually, Trademarks are different from copyrights/patents in that they are originally based on consumer protections, not as a carrot to elicit registration of artifacts/ideas.

trademarks are intended to provide some assurance taht a given consumer good is produced by a supposedly trusted party. that way some jerk can;t put rat poison in coke bottles and sell it as a refreshing cola.

in the 80's of course, companies started trying to manipulate trademarks to clear the road for their desired marketing image. since so many deals these days are simply crossmarketing arragnements, they believe that an unconfused "brand" has more value in the eyes of advertisers.

czr114
November 24th, 2010, 09:03 PM
The letter i can stand for Internet or information.

Unfortunately, anyone who tries to sell iSoftware will be quickly shut down. That letter is trademarked when joined by a camelCase noun.

Now the use of the word face has become suspect in anything dealing with technology.

Trademark law has become ridiculously overbroad and deliberately weighted against small business and individual developers.

If I release a hypothetical one-man iApp, there will be no practical likelihood of confusion, as my app wouldn't be for OSX, wouldn't look like an Apple interface, wouldn't be advertised through Apple channels, and wouldn't have Apple's fruit mark. No reasonable person would be confused, yet the trademark system would allow Apple to successfully win said hypothetical case for infringing on their pet letter.

Imagine the same problem with 'face'.

Ever wonder why so many services and products have goofy, made-up names that are neither words nor have anything to do with the service or product being described? Fresh, unique nonsense can be easily trademarked and is immune from larger entities, like those who own the letter 'i' or the word 'face'. The rest of us have to suffer through that crap.

This policy is incredibly destructive to small developers and FOSS projects, and only serves to reinforce the [big]producer/[small]consumer distinction the Internet and community software had been working so hard to break down.

See, if iInfringe, then iFace the music, because that's how the system works. Big companies don't have that worry. Their lawyers will navigate the lobbyist-created minefield, with only occasional settlement problems with other equally-armed entities.

The goal is IP oligopoly, with the rest of us serving as "consumers" and nothing more.

czr114
November 24th, 2010, 09:09 PM
actually, Trademarks are different from copyrights/patents in that they are originally based on consumer protections, not as a carrot to elicit registration of artifacts/ideas.

trademarks are intended to provide some assurance taht a given consumer good is produced by a supposedly trusted party. that way some jerk can;t put rat poison in coke bottles and sell it as a refreshing cola.

in the 80's of course, companies started trying to manipulate trademarks to clear the road for their desired marketing image. since so many deals these days are simply crossmarketing arragnements, they believe that an unconfused "brand" has more value in the eyes of advertisers.
That was the stated intention a long, long time ago. That protects people from fraud by sanctioning fake Coca-Cola (with script) from being fraudulently passed off as the real thing.

Overbroad trademarks are an offensive weapon. Trademark law allows no good faith exception for the use of a previously-registered broad mark.

It's moved from protecting extremely distinguished styles and names applied to specific products to protecting generic words in entire sectors.

Apple got hosed on iOS because Cisco released IOS prior. A giant court case was precipitated and settled over the letter i, of which both sides had been using in good faith, and in no way in any way which might create confusion.

How this skirts past guarantees of free speech can only be explained by an infestation of lobbyists.

Startups and independent devs are burdened by rent-seeking IP attorneys and consultants siphoning off precious capital for their exercise in paper pushing.

The system has gotten way out of hand. The Internet has made the world a much smaller place. Collision is possible for just about anything other than a mark consisting of the ASCII characters grepped from /dev/random.

endotherm
November 24th, 2010, 09:18 PM
its amusing that you bring up apple/iOS.
Apple Computers was sued long long ago, over the name "Apple", by Apple Music (John Lennon's production studio and label for many Beatles albums), a long standing brand. the courts decided that Apple Computers could keep the name, but they were barred from going into the music business. not sure how they managed to get into the music business, but that was much of why Beatles titles were not in iTunes until last week.

Old_Grey_Wolf
November 24th, 2010, 09:51 PM
The US patent, copyright, and trademark system is in real need of a pave and reinstall. Something has gone seriously wrong with its operating system. What's next, someone will trademark my last name and I will have to go by John Doe...Oh, or has that been patented already?

endotherm
November 24th, 2010, 09:54 PM
The US patent, copyright, and trademark system is in real need of a pave and reinstall. Something has gone seriously work with its operating system. What's next, someone will trademark my last name and I will have to go by John Doe...Oh, or has that been patented already?


well, there was this:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft

nolag
November 24th, 2010, 09:57 PM
technically it's a trademark. same reason my user name can't be "Coca-cola".

Yes, and like I said for that reason you can't have "face" things in telecommunications. I can't advertise "face to face" interactions, I can still have them. I know its not OMG you said face I will sue you but still come on. coca-cola is not a word. It's not like some one would remember your coca-cola. If I was to create a social network and have a "remember that face" function (I don't know what it would do) I would get in trouble. Granted the same is true for "remember that coca-cola" but for some reason I feel it's not the same...

Lucradia
November 24th, 2010, 10:03 PM
Dear Apple Computers Inc.,

We at Facebook have recently found out that you have violated a copyright of ours, by using the word FaceTime as one of your products, and are therefore suing you for 3,141,592,653.58 (Three Billion, One-Hundred Forty One Million, Five-Hundred Ninety-Two Thousand, Six-Hundred Fifty-Three and Fifty-Eight) US Dollars/Cents due to this copyright violation. If you do not pay the company within 31 Days, you will be tried in Federal Court within the United States of America.

Salutations,
The Facebook Legal Team

I can just see it now....

oldsoundguy
November 24th, 2010, 10:08 PM
Another example of contributing enough to political campaigns as a means to "get what you want, no matter how stupid"

Such is that there are many places in the US that the municipal/governmental/educational agencies are banned from even TRYING FOSS. Money talks!

cpmman
November 24th, 2010, 10:19 PM
cpmman@CQ61:~$ sudo ppa-purge facebook

Dustin2128
November 25th, 2010, 12:21 AM
cpmman@CQ61:~$ sudo ppa-purge facebook

lanteran@darkstar:~$ sudo rm /facebook

Spice Weasel
November 25th, 2010, 01:00 AM
lanteran@darkstar:~$ sudo rm /facebook


cat ~/facebook > /dev/null
rm -f ~/facebook

Ric_NYC
November 25th, 2010, 01:09 AM
Ridiculous.

Dr. C
November 25th, 2010, 03:02 AM
How is this different from "Apple' or "Bell" both very common words? The trick is to have a product or a service that is unrelated to the common use of the word. An apple farmer claiming a trademark on apple would get nowhere fast, but the apple farmer could trademark "music" or "computer" as a brand for apples.

3rdalbum
November 25th, 2010, 03:05 AM
its amusing that you bring up apple/iOS.
Apple Computers was sued long long ago, over the name "Apple", by Apple Music (John Lennon's production studio and label for many Beatles albums), a long standing brand. the courts decided that Apple Computers could keep the name, but they were barred from going into the music business. not sure how they managed to get into the music business

Paying huge wads of cash. They shipped a Macintosh with an inbuilt speaker, they had to pay off Apple Corp. They gave it the ability to work with MIDI, they had to pay off Apple Corp. They created the iPod, they had to pay off Apple Corp. They started selling music, they had to pay off Apple Corp.

Steve Jobs starts humming a tune in the elevator, he has to pay off Apple Corp.

Zerocool Djx
November 25th, 2010, 04:58 AM
Yea,.. in the movie "socail network" he talks about not selling out the "cool" image of face book. Seems over the last few months they forgot what they stood for.

They can have it,... Facebook=crap in my opinion.

Why must people go on the public "airwaves" and broadcast everything there into? Whatever happened to getting out of the house, bypassing the McDonald's and going to a club, pub, or anything to meet people in real life. Ironically, they are coming out with more and more 3D technology. You want real 3D? a real experience! Get out of your house and do something...

Arg,.. F-Facebook!

themarker0
November 25th, 2010, 05:20 AM
This is just for the states correct?

corrytonapple
November 25th, 2010, 05:33 AM
Now we can just call it "The Face", such as, "I like to be on the social network 'The Face'". Hmm, I don't like the sounds of this. Maybe a minature Apple I am seeing? Oh no, I put "Face" in this post.
*Plays "Jaws" Music*

endotherm
November 25th, 2010, 08:28 AM
This is just for the states correct?
Trademark recriprication is part of WTO membership and specified in the WIPO treaty (http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/tlt/), so most governments will have to deal with it as a legal issue, however I believe their own courts woudl really determine how any case was resolved.

JustinR
November 25th, 2010, 11:09 AM
well, there was this:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft

Not meaning to hijack the thread - but look what he got out of that lawsuit:


In late January 2004, it was revealed that the two parties had come to an out of court settlement, with Microsoft taking control of the domain.[14] In return Microsoft agreed to pay all of the expenses that Rowe had incurred including setting up a new site at and redirecting traffic to MikeRoweforums.com.[15] Additionally Microsoft provided Rowe with a subscription to the Microsoft Developer Network, an all expenses paid trip for him and his family to the Microsoft Research Tech Fest at their headquarters in Redmond, Washington, training for Microsoft certification and an Xbox with a selection of games.[10] Following an on-line poll, Rowe donated most of his legal defense fund to a children's hospice and used the remaining money for his future university education.[16][17]

murack
November 25th, 2010, 06:42 PM
About as daft as England patenting all English words would be.

murack
November 25th, 2010, 06:44 PM
This is just for the states correct?

correct

Old_Grey_Wolf
November 25th, 2010, 08:41 PM
Face-palm for Facebook!

m4tic
November 25th, 2010, 10:21 PM
USA would be a bad place to start a business for me

Zerocool Djx
November 26th, 2010, 01:36 AM
http://www.reddisability.org.uk/famous-modem/TheFace.jpg

"Listen facebook, I'm gonna go ahead and let you finish, but you gotta relize there is only one true 'Face' in this town, time to find your plan B!"

themarker0
November 26th, 2010, 04:28 AM
Trademark recriprication is part of WTO membership and specified in the WIPO treaty (http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/tlt/), so most governments will have to deal with it as a legal issue, however I believe their own courts woudl really determine how any case was resolved.

Good. Because this is the second stupidest thing i've seen ever be announced in the public sphere. (The top is the patent on turning horses to unicorns)

inobe
November 26th, 2010, 05:32 AM
myface yourface, never liked those sites, i said it several times that ubuntu forums is the most useful social networking sites ever.