Did Facebook Fraudulently Obtain A Trademark?

A long-distance calling company called Talkbook has filed a legal challenge against Facebook for alleged fraud in the way the social network trademarked its own name.

A long-distance calling company called Talkbook has filed a legal challenge against Facebook for alleged fraud in the way the social network trademarked its own name.

Talkbook submitted a “petition for cancellation” to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Appeal Board saying it’s fraudulent that the social network originally sought a trademark on “The Facebook,” and later filed an amendment to drop “The” from the name.

The phone app company also disputes Facebook’s claims of first commercial use of its name in reference to features the social network supposedly had in use at the time the trademark was filed, February 2, 2004.

Talkbook argues that in 2004, many of these features weren’t available on the site — things like electronic publishing, classified ads, video sharing, instant messages,advertising, online databases and even social networking.

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