Watch out, Facebook users. Mark Zuckerberg’s social network giant recently modified the company’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (i.e., Terms of Service [‘TOS’]) to now allege that Facebook claims trademark rights to the word ‘Book.’ (Read it below)
Oh, and in case you forgot, Facebook also claims intellectual property rights to the words ‘Face,’ Poke, and ‘Wall’
Take a look for yourself:
Here is Paragraph 5 of the modified TOS, with changes highlighted in red:
The claim is obviously too a generic term that does not appear to be able to pass the sniff test for trademark claims. Will the Authors Guild or Association of American Publishers sue for a declaratory judgment in federal court over the mark?
If Facebook can effectively assert trademark rights to the words ‘face’ or ‘book,’ is any word safe from misappropriation?
You can read Facebook’s current changes to the TOS affecting users here, and talk about it below.
Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (March 2012)
