Meta given 30 days to cease using the name Threads by company that trademarked it 11 years ago::undefined
Where have I seen this before? Oh yeah: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_Games
They’ll be fine.
I don’t know which concerns me more: That Meta gets their asses kicked, or why the f-ck someone was able to trademark the word “Threads”.
Someone was able to trademark the word “Apple”, so that’s not so surprising
Which, for me, also falls under “why the heck was this legal at any time?”
Because unless you want every company to be a random Amazon brand or initialism, that’s how it kinda has to be, and it works fine until one company gains so much market share the word starts being associated with only them.
Think of like, Target or Shell. Both are huge companies, but their fields are narrow. You might confuse a Target named restaurant or pharmacy to be the Target, but probably not much more. And if it doesn’t have anything to do with oil or gas, it’s almost certainly not that Shell.Apple is just so huge I wouldn’t be surprised if at this point people think of iPhones while buying lunch. And even they started as “Apple Computers, inc”, because they wouldn’t have gotten just “Apple” if they had tried.
Twice.
And when Apple violated the agreement they made with Apple Music not to enter each other’s industries (Apple Records couldn’t sell tech and Apple Computers couldn’t sell music), they successfully argued in court that iTunes wasn’t selling music, but digital downloads…
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I always thought it was funny while studying for my Cisco certification that their operating system was also called IOS. I had no idea there was actual drama behind it!
How stupid must the court be to agree that Apple music isn’t about selling music…
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Apple Corps
You don’t trademark the word “threads”, you trademark it within the context of the industry you’re in
I can make a shop that sells pies and call it “Apple”
Well… Apple may come after your pie shop. You’ll likely win if you have the resources to fight it.
Monster Cable, they fight anyone who uses the word “monster” including mini golf places
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/98013289
Tldr, monster Cable is ran by shit humans who like to litigate.
Monster Energy Drink are also litigious assholes
https://gamerant.com/monster-energy-drink-indie-game-developer-lawsuit/
I’d like to see them fight each other in court. I think that would be interesting.
why litigate when you can just send pie
pipe bomb flavor
Your trademark is protected only in the field you’re in, but if you’re a widely known brand, and can prove it, you usually have some special protection, allowing you to prevent others from using it in all fields.
Eh, unlike some of the other pretty blatantly frivolous lawsuits we’ve seen lately (such as the google chrome cast one) this seems pretty legit. They had a globally recognized company called threads that worked in the software industry and meta had made multiple offers for their IP showing they knew about them and still went ahead. Seems clear cut and Meta will likely have to change the name.
They should call it Y.
It should be easy to rename as no one is using it.
But seriously, this is the kind of bullshit those monopolistic companies are doing all the time. Another infuriating one was with Google’s Go language. Author contacted them that he was using the name for 10 years and even had a book written about the language, but they basically just went with it anyway, because he was nobody and they were Google. Also, this is speculating, but I won’t believe when they came up with the name they didn’t use their Google to look the name up, probably that’s why they closed the issue so quickly.
What’s the chrome cast one?
It’s called patent troll.
you’re right in almost everything
Seems clear cut and Meta will likely have to change the name.
Meta has a massive amount of resources, I’m sure they can afford more lawyers than the British company. Courts tend to favor the one with most resources, so the smaller company will have a very hard time trying to make Meta to change their app’s name.
If I was a judge I’d tell meta their attempt to buy what they wanted, then breaking IP law as soon as money couldn’t get what they wanted in hopes money in court would get them what they want is enough guilt for me. You really don’t need a degree in behavioral science to know a tantrum when you see one. This is a money tantrum by meta. Probably why im not a judge but hey, don’t tell me you wouldn’t enjoy a system that doesn’t give the benefit of the doubt to those that did everything to prove they’re irresponsible with said benefit.
Pretty sure the original company will accept at a certain price, they just want to put legal pressure to make it rise, which is fair.
Not so much in the UK, but we’ll just have to wait and see. It may just end up that, in the UK, they’ll be called ThreadsUK or some legally-acceptable variant of the name that “meaningfully distinguishes” them according to the court.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Threadstropolis.
And disapprove of the name only because that sounds pretty cool
Threads a go-go
Like The London Suede, whom no one, at any time has ever referred to as The London Suede
I’m inclined to believe you, because I’ve never heard of it!
them… Suede the band :) In the US their CD’s are labeled The London Suede cause some kids out in California or some shit were called Suede first and wouldn’t settle for a reasonable amount, so Suede got to keep their name in the states, never saw a penny, and when anyone on this planet mentiones Suede theyre not talking about the american kids waah waaaah
The UK courts will be inclined to favour the UK company over an American conglomerate. They have to operate within the confines of the law but the British government really do want to show that they can actually act against these big multinationals (they need the win) so there may be quite a lot of interest in this case.
I can totally see the courts been heavily encouraged to throw the book at them as much as possible.
While you’re absolutely right, there is often an element of appeasing the big US tech companies in London, given that the likes of Meta and Amazon are two of the biggest employers in the tech industry here. Pair this with the fact that we’ve got a large tech industry with very zero unicorns or home-grown success stories with a UK HQ, and I can see some pressure to compromise.
There’s a reason why FAANG companies barely pay tax here, and it’s often because the threat of packing up and going home would absolutely crush the UK tech industry.
It appears that Meta was aware of Threads before launching its platform of the same name. Company lawyers made four offers to purchase the domain ‘threads.app’ from Threads Software Ltd from April 2023, all of which were declined. Meta announced Threads in July 2023, the same time that the British company says it was removed from Facebook.
Classic Facebook douchebaggery.
I saw this weird panel for a famous university (can’t remember which one) that interviewed Mark’s wife. She said that they run by everything past Mark for final sign off and also he comes up with a lot of the ideas. This smells like a Mark’s own original idea.
Looks like it’s his only original idea.
I mean, it is a very descriptive name for a social media commenting app. Im not surprised he went with it.
He didn’t go with it, he stole it, lol.
Didn’t they do the same thing to Meta? Aren’t they being sued now?
Eh it’s such a genetic term trademark arguments are hard to make here. Also their completely different niches. Boring corporate bs thats only making news because people (rightfully) hate Metas Threads.
I’m so confident in your legal analysis, which is clearly well thought out and legally sound, that I’ve launched my new social network “PepSi”.
Gotta say, I’m feeling good about this one. No way it goes tits up.
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How do I sign up? Is it still invite-only?
Wholly incorrect. I work in trademark law and yeah you have no idea what you’re talking about.
So… hypothetically, what if I’ve already used his comment as legal advice to launch my social network, “PepSi”?
Is DrMoose on the hook for damages, to me? What are my options here?
I don’t agree with the one you’re replying to, but trademark is usually bound to a sector. I’m pretty sure Pepsi trademarked all sectors known to mankind, but many companies don’t do that. If I start a bakery called FooBarBaz I can trademark that just fine even if there’s a software company called FooBarBaz that trademarked the name only for software.
FooBarBaz
Found the dev.
It’s lemmy, I think there was around an 80% chance anyway…
So you don’t foresee any legal issues with pursuing my dream of opening a chain of nail salons called “British Petroleum”?
Depends… Did BP trademark it every which way to Sunday (say for multiple industries/uses)?
Just Dew It
That’s a great slogan, really sums up the energy of the PepSi social network. I’ve just filed to trademark it.
What if down the road I wanted to use that slogan for my landscaping company, NiKE.
Would that be an issue?
I never claimed anything about the law just commented how uninteristing and dumb this whole thing is.
again? didnt they have to pay that woman who was regged as meta on insta aswell? like there is nothing at all original about marcs “ideas”.
Completely forgot Threads was even a thing.
So did everyone else lol
Zuckbot just got his ass kicked lol. 🤣
Yeah. The group making billions in profit every quarter is sure getting their ass kicked. Facebook is dying too, right?
Well everyone, you can reach on lanyards.app @bitwolf
LMAO; Fuck you Facebook!
It is too bad Meta couldn’t afford a lawyer to do a search for trademarks and copyrights. Really shame.
Did you even read the article??
It appears that Meta was aware of Threads before launching its platform of the same name. Company lawyers made four offers to purchase the domain ‘threads.app’ from Threads Software Ltd from April 2023, all of which were declined. Meta announced Threads in July 2023, the same time that the British company says it was removed from Facebook.
They literally made an offer to buy the domain Threads.app 4 times and got rejected.
It was sarcasm. Meta has lots of money.
And then figured they’d be fine if they deleted their Facebook account. If your Facebook account gets deleted you get deleted in real life, after all.
TIL Facebook follows Wes Craven rules
You think they were unaware?
They already planned for this. They’ll settle out of court. It’s pennies to them and a planned business expense, like a fine
There’s no love lost between me and Meta, but I’m just gon’ leave this here:
Your link doesn’t work for me. Is this the same?
https://nakamotoinstitute.org/static/docs/against-intellectual-monopoly.pdf
Yes
Does it actually talk about Trademark or is it just about Patents and Copyright? Despite all three being different types of IP, Trademark serves a different purpose them the other two. It’s essentially just about preventing Corporate Identity Theft. It’s why it’s only one that’s supposed to last forever.
I’m sure Meta will either pay them out or bankrupt them in court.
There’s another threads too that my company used to use for internal posts (referenced in the article): https://threads.com/
Interesting that they managed to keep the .com name
I can make it worse. Let’s call it Yarn now. Also, let’s downvote my comment. I’ve ran out of good ideas.
