Well this is certainly an interesting topic... Facebook filed a lawsuit against Faceporn in court on October 15th in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Facebook is claiming that the porn site essentially copied Facebook to build an X-rated social network. Faceporn "blatantly copied the Facebook logo, site and Wall trademark." Screen shots filed with the lawsuit show some Facebook-like elements, including Wall postings and a similar blue-and-white color scheme. Instead of poking, Faceporn users can apparently "send a flirt," according to the screen shots. Facebook asks the court to order Faceporn to hand over its Web domain and all revenue to Facebook.
Actually, Facebook has gone to court before to prevent social-networking sites from using elements that it considers to be Facebook's property, including the words "book" and "face." In August, the company sued a startup called TeachBook, claiming that its use of the word "book" violated Facebook's trademark. Teachbook doesn't look much like Facebook, but it does give teachers a way to network online.
"We don't believe Faceporn should be able to trade on our name and dilute and tarnish our brand while doing so," Facebook spokesman Simon Axten said Friday via e-mail. "Where there is brand tarnishment, dilution, or confusion as there is with Faceporn and Facebook, we must enforce our rights to protect the integrity of our trademark."
This seems like a case where Facebook is trying to throw around its weight unnecessarily. They should just leave everyone else alone. They are already the biggest social networking site by a huge margin and noone is going to take that away from them. Unbelievable.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I agree with Kyle. This seems like Facebook is using its power presence in the market as a barrier of entry to any potential new social networking site threats. Can they do this? Obviously ...they can and did.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you on those points. On a lighter note, I'm sure its a pretty lucrative website which is what triggered facebook's suit. Porn is a money maker and they want their share :-)
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