FiftyThree Files Trademark For “Paper”

I know Facebook using the name without communicating first feels wrong, but this is just petty and won't succeed.

I'd be interested to see how FiftyThree proves damages in this case, and whether or not the judge will make a call for the punitive damages.

I definitely think that there's no doubt about it: the FiftyThree Paper sales will certainly take a hit, and the brand is diluted hugely, especially for those who haven't encountered it yet.

This was obviously a conversation that Facebook had, and chose to do it anyway - not sure exactly what the result of the conversation was internally, but it almost certainly had to have some phrase like "well, if they sue us, we can handle it."

Leaving aside the debate over trademarking common words, it's surprising FiftyThree hadn't already trademarked their product names. They charge a premium price for well-branded products - trademarking those names should have happened as a matter of course.

1) Trademark rights are generally effective from date of use in commerce, not the date of filing.

2) Filing for registration isn't the same as filing an infringement claim.

3) The phrase "trademark for/on [some word]" is meaningless. Trademarks only exist for a word or name in the context of some class of product. "Lucky" brand jeans is a different mark than "Lucky" Strike bowling.

Is this really the best usage of your funding cash? Seems like half of 53's $15M can go down the drain with this sort of thing. I sort of expect FB Paper to flop like the Facebook phone OS thing; if I were 53 I wouldn't be going so ballistic over this. Best case, they get the trademark and Facebook whittles down all of their funding in order for them to get it. Better for them to just move on and recognize that their product and Facebook's are different enough and it's not worth having the SEO from people searching the word "paper" to go into an expensive legal battle.