Guess Who Is Trying To Trademark The Word “Face”? (And Guess Who Is Trying To Stop It?)
When it comes to trademarks, Facebook is proving to be a bully. It is going after Teachbook in court for using a similar name, and already forced Placebook to change its name. But that is only half the story.
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook has been building a reputation as an aggressive litigant well before this filing: in July 2009, a district court judge ordered it to reveal its source code in a patent dispute, and now its enforcement arm is pointed at smaller sites whose names echo its own. Per the reporting, it took Teachbook to court over a similar name and had already forced Placebook into a rename — and the same day, TechCrunch ran a companion piece listing more companies Facebook could 'bully or sue', a frame that traveled widely enough to define the story.
The new twist is that Facebook is reportedly seeking to trademark the word 'Face' itself, which escalates from defending one brand to claiming a piece of everyday English — exactly what makes this story resonate beyond the two named targets.
First-order effects
- Teachbook is now in court against a far larger opponent, bearing litigation costs that most small startups cannot absorb, while Placebook's completed rename shows the practical outcome for those who fold early.
Second-order effects
- Founders of similarly named sites will likely pre-emptively rebrand or steer clear of '-book' and '-face' naming conventions entirely, letting Facebook clear the namespace without filing against every one of them.
Third-order effects
- If a company can register a common word like 'Face' and enforce it broadly, the pattern pushes trademark practice toward platform incumbents fencing off generic vocabulary — and invites public-opinion and regulatory counterweight, since 'bully' was the dominant frame even at announcement.
The trend: Category-defining platforms are extending brand protection from their trademarks toward generic words and suffixes, using litigation scale to reshape how competitors may name themselves.