Facebook in ‘book’ suffix dispute

Facebook has announced that it is embarking on legal proceedings against a new website called Teachbook that aims to improve links between teachers in the state of Illinois. The dispute centres on the use of the suffix ‘book’ as Facebook aims to try and protect the brand as aggressively as possible.

Teachbook is being developed as a way of helping teachers in Illinois to share techniques to help improve education. It is also intended as a resource for students, parents and communities to interact with educators. The site has not yet been launched and it has already spent time negotiating with Facebook regarding trademark issues. However, the social media giant has no determined to take legal action.

Facebook claim the following as their motivation:

If others could freely use ‘generic plus BOOK’ marks for online networking services targeted to that particular generic category of individuals, the suffix BOOK could become a generic term for ‘online community/networking services’ or ’social networking services’. That would dilute the distinctiveness of the Facebook Marks.

Those behind the Teachbook site have responded to the proceedings with incredulity, but have vowed to fight Facebook all the way. Greg Shrader, speaking on behalf of Teachbook, said:

We’re trying to understand how Facebook, a multi-billion dollar company, feels this small enterprise in Chicago is any type of threat.