Facebook to Teachbook.com: 'Give Us Our 'Book' Back!'

by Lee Bains on August 26, 2010 at 02:40 PM

Facebook has filed suit against Teachbook.com, claiming that the educators' social network has violated Facebook's trademark. At the heart of the suit are several claims, the most obvious being the latter website's use of "book" in its name. Also at issue, though, are Teachbook's attempts to trademark its own name, and its purported tendency to describe itself as "Facebook for teachers." (We cannot confirm the latter allegation, as a search of Teachbook.com rendered no mentions of Facebook in that context.)

While bloggers (ourselves included) tend to jump on Facebook's litigious proclivities, we're inclined to let Zuckerberg & Co. slide on this one. Do any of us honestly believe that Teachbook.com would've chosen its name had Facebook not had such runaway success? And can we honestly say that no teacher will, even if subconsciously, think that the two sites have nothing to do with one another? We've long stood to protect intellectual property, and -- if we're fair -- we'll continue to defend it, whether it rightfully belongs to an indie rock band or to a ridiculously wealthy online empire. Of course, as Gawker does well to mention, it's not a foregone conclusion that "Facebook" rightfully belonged to Mark Zuckerberg in the first place.

Tags: facebook, intellectual property, IntellectualProperty, lawsuit, socialnetworking, teachbook, top, trademark, trademark infringement, TrademarkInfringement

via: Gawker
source: Mashable
More coverage: Information Week

Comments

LiaAug 29th 2010 9:53AM

Highest Ranked

So, places like Burger King, Burger Barn, Cheeseburger in Paradise, etc. should all be fighting because the word "burger" is in all of their company names? Ridiculous. Facebook needs to back off. They are way too full of themselves. Nobody is going to confuse Teachbook with Facebook, believe me.

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philmcm102Aug 29th 2010 10:32AM

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These big companys like Facebook, McDonalds, and Starbucks are to arrogant for there own good. I don't believe that they should be able to copyright any thing other than their name. The problem is that they have the money and the power to take on the little guy who can't afford the legal fees. I don't think that corporate America understands that people don't like this type of behavior. I don't go to McDonaldsor Starbucks and I will not join Facebook now,( I was contemplating it). All I have to say to this is Mc F--- McYou Facebook and the rest of your kind of corporate America

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tifire85Aug 29th 2010 10:54AM

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Facebook got it's name from the phone book concept. Using Facebook's logic, Yellowbook.com would have a case against Facebook considering they had the name first.

Facebook isn't doing this to win in court. They are doing this to force teachbook out of business by forcing them to funnel capital investment into defending itself from phony lawsuits and therefore not be able to spend their money to compete.

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mommyAug 29th 2010 10:55AM

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My friend originally started Teachbook when everyone was heavy into Myspace. He sold to the current owners a year or 2 ago. They made it into a wonderful site for teachers. Facebook should mind it's own arrogant business and leave the little guys alone. Mark Zuckerberg can suck it!!!

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hedtripAug 29th 2010 11:34AM

Highest Ranked

Facebook is no different than Burger King or McDonalds when it comes to asinine assumptions about their "name." McDonalds even sued a teenage girl for using the name McFest for a charity concert she put together. McDonald's claims the "Mc" in the name violates their trademark. So to must all the McFarland's, McDougal's, etc. of the world. Get real. Zuckerberg has become a rich, arrogant, nerd ... but he's still a nerd.

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Neno1ElaAug 29th 2010 1:07PM

Neutral

Those people from face Book don't have any face at all. Will they put ban on using that word all together so no one can say it aloud? What in the world those 2 sites have in common? When I last time visited their place to see content of my son's "socializing", I can't say there was much of educational or teaching oriented in anything I saw there. And, even being really good student, he sure doesn't go there to learn or encounter anything overly intelligent and smart. F-book (they should call it that way since, it is what they are doing) didn't invent that word so they have right to claim it "their". Words belong to whole humanity to use it and, obviously, abuse it, as they see it fit. They should be proud that BOOK is used more and promote it to be used even more often, any way possible since, as I can see, USA is not the very first in the world, with the ratings of the students by the knowledge of many things (starting with math., language, science and so on). Generally, it is slipping rapidly with anything educational and BOOK oriented, except $$ bestseller novels, produced by $$ agreements, in batches of dozen or more.
If this is ruled in F- Book favor, than it means that , ... future of our next generations, learning trade and social rules from places like this, is pitiful all together.

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