By Here’s one piece of news that some claim to be not unexpected and yet I find it hard to get my head round it.
Facebook has taken quite a few steps towards trademarking the word “face”. I find this puzzling, do you imagine a news site patenting the word “news”?
I’m not sure if I completely understand why Facebook would want to obtain a trademark on the word “face” but I’m still uncertain on the impact. What could possibly happen if Mark Zuckerberg got this trademark?
Why does Facebook want this trademark?
While the first question is tricky, the second is relatively easy to answer. Facebook’s notoriety is in no small amount related to the word “face” which is in it’s title.
According to various sources, Facebook plans to use this trademark only in the social networking scene. Fiona McBride, a trademark specialist that works for law firm Withers and Rogers, tells us that Facebook has a legal right to do this.
Mark Zuckerberg
That’s right, apparently Facebook has a legal right to trademark a word that is part of its name.
While many (me included) are still trying to figure out how Facebook could benefit from this one thing is clear.
If the “face” word trademark were granted it would only apply to online sites and services used to exchange messages.
Basically, if Facebook got a trademark for the word “face” they could wipe out anybody who comes up with a new social network with a related name.
Again, I’m not sure if this is a very good idea. If the trademark was granted, probably the first to suffer would be Apple’s Facetime service.
