As it is well-known Facebook’s parent company has been renamed Meta not so long ago, which triggers new trademark applications for META. This blog has already written about Facebook’s attempt to register such trademarks and the potential challenges due to many early registered similar trademarks around the world for similar goods and services.
In that regard, the Swiss non-profit Dfinity Foundation has initiated a lawsuit against Meta in the US, based on the following international trademark registered for the US, the EU, China, and Russia with priority since 2017:
The trademark is registered for:
09 Software; electronic publications for download.
35 Collection and systematization of information into computer databases; Data processing services; Business process management services and related services provided by consultants.
38 Providing access to computer networks, internet platforms, data banks and electronic publications; Digital audio and video data transmission services; Providing access to databases on the Internet, digital music, especially in MP3 format, including; Transmission of video via digital networks; Providing access to databases and information via global computer networks; Providing connections to a global communications network or to databases by telecommunications.
42 Design and development of computers and software; computer database design; design and development of electronic databases; creation and development of computer programs for data processing; Data migration services; hosting computer sites (websites); Hosting computerized data, files, applications and information; Hosting software applications for others; computer database hosting; Hosting multimedia and interactive applications; hosting platforms on the Internet.
Apart from this Dfinity has the following separate figurative trademark in the US:
According to the Foundation Meta infringes the rights over its earlier marks by using the mathematical symbol for infinity.
Most of Meta’s trademarks are filed in 2021 while no figurative trademarks for the infinity sign were discovered.
It’s a matter of time what will happen and whether this dispute will be solved as a result of a court decision or an out-of-court settlement. Nevertheless, the case shows clearly how difficult such rebranding could be and how important are preliminary trademark searches.
Source: TURNER WRIGHT, Cointelegraph.com
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PLANET 