C&D, or cease and desist, letters are one of the staples of trademark attorneys. That this particular letter was sent by Heller Ehrmann on behalf of Facebook over the use of the domain name facebookeconomy.com should come as no surprise. The law is finally catching up with cybersquatters, and demanding that they stop holding valuable trademarks for ransom. Facebook, for some time now, has been moving more aggressively to protect its marks.
At some point, having wasted enough time and money, Facebook will get tough with this clown. And, as soon as the legal bills mount, Mr. Mayhew is going to have to confront the harsh reality that he has misappropriated another’s intellectual property.
All in all, it’s a pretty boring case. Boring, except for the second paragraph, which asserts that Twitter is a Facebook competitor.
What do you think? Is Twitter a competitor to Facebook? Or is Heller Ehrmann attorney Melyssa Minamoto playing fast and loose with the facts to bolster her case that Mayhew is damaging Facebook’s brands?
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Are facebook and twitter competitors? For me. Personally. The answer is a definite yes.
Facebook has always claimed to be centrally a communication platform.
And they were very quick to add the status updates once twitter started to take off.
And most of the people I know who were once active on FB have moved away and started using Twitter to satisfy those central communication needs in a much more satisfactory way.
In my opinion, NO! They're nothing alike.