Threads Software Limited says its lawyers have informed Meta that it will seek an injunction from the courts if the Facebook parent keeps using the name Threads...

Meta given 30 days to cease using the name Threads by company that trademarked it 11 years ago::undefined

  • Thales@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2181·
    11 months ago

    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.

  • MNByChoice@midwest.socialEnglish
    977·
    11 months ago

    It is too bad Meta couldn’t afford a lawyer to do a search for trademarks and copyrights. Really shame.

    • Resolute3542@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      483·
      11 months ago

      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.

      • kautau@lemmy.worldEnglish
        45·
        11 months ago

        They already planned for this. They’ll settle out of court. It’s pennies to them and a planned business expense, like a fine

  • Treczoks@lemm.eeEnglish
    48·
    11 months ago

    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”.

    • ezchili@iusearchlinux.fyiEnglish
      38·
      11 months ago

      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”

    • the_ocs@lemmy.worldEnglish
      28·
      11 months ago

      Someone was able to trademark the word “Apple”, so that’s not so surprising

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.worldEnglish
        33·
        11 months ago

        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…

          • Gray@lemmy.caEnglish
            3·
            11 months ago

            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!

      • Treczoks@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        11 months ago

        Which, for me, also falls under “why the heck was this legal at any time?”

        • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          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.

  • Octavio@lemmy.worldEnglish
    431·
    11 months ago

    Gosh if only Meta hd money for lawyers, they could squish this like a bug. Oh, yeah. They do have money for lawyers. Tons of it.

      • Octavio@lemmy.worldEnglish
        152·
        11 months ago

        I don’t know anything about UK law but in my observations, giant corporations with tons of cash and armies of lawyers solicitors do what they want. I could be wrong but it is just my cynical view, not legal advice.

      • Welt@lazysoci.alEnglish
        52·
        11 months ago

        UK has a fairer legal system overall, but Meta will delay, delay, delay to avoid accountability and keep using the Threads name for the next umpteen years, and at some point the original owner of the trademark will settle for a nice payday (though nothing like what they’d win if they beat Meta’s team of lawyers… which won’t happen).

        • aidan@lemmy.worldEnglish
          43·
          11 months ago

          UK has a fairer legal system overall,

          What??? I suppose it depends on certain contexts, but I wouldn’t say overall. Super injuctions are a very obvious one. Also, just lack of constitutional protections.

    • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      11 months ago

      Depressing that people treat money winning over justice as a given. There is realism, and then there’s defeatism.

  • Deftdrummer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    373·
    11 months ago

    Fun fact: Google has to pay royalties to Windsor Castle since they had a Keep product first.

  • MrFlamey@lemmy.worldEnglish
    33·
    11 months ago

    Well can’t they just call it Meta Threads or Threads by Meta if it isn’t already, and nothing has to change.

    • zaphod@feddit.deEnglish
      22·
      11 months ago

      Not an expert on trademark law, but I think “Threads by Meta” would not work as the main part of that name would still be “Threads”, “Meta Threads” could work, but if they’d make the “Meta” part not prominent in the branding then again it would probably be considered as only “Threads”.

      • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        13·
        11 months ago

        Not an expert either, and I’m definitely not a lawyer. But I did take an elective class in uni on IPR.

        Generally you can have two types of trademarks. You can use graphics as your trademark or a word. And your trademark must be unique to be defendable.

        The word can’t be something that is already in use, if you want to register it as a wordmark. Ie you can’t register the word “beer” and market beer under that trademark. What you can register is alternative spelling or your logo.

        The word “threads” is a word that was used previously. It has a meaning already. So you can’t register it as a wordmark.

        This is one of the reasons why alphabet really hates that people use the word “google” as a verb, or LEGO that people call the bricks “legos”, as it diminishes the trademarkability of the word and thus makes defending the trademark harder.

        If both companies tries to claim the word “threads” they’ll have a pretty weak case. While I don’t know exactly what this is about, I suspect that the headline doesn’t give the full picture of the dispute.

        • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          would the enforceability of a trademark in this situation not also depend on whether an average person could easily distinguish the meta threads app from the other company? It’s been a while since I took this class and admittedly it was for non-majors but the way it was explained to us is that you can open a used car lot called “McDonald’s”, you just can’t sell burgers or lead people to believe that the burger joint is now selling used cars.

          • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2·
            11 months ago

            Probably, I don’t know, TBH the elective course I took was single week of summer school, 2 ECTS points, passed by attendance. And it was around 2010.

          • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            3·
            11 months ago

            Why do you think that so many companies have ordinary sounding names with weird spelling? Sure, it communicates “We’re hip and creative”, but it’s definitely also a trademark thing.

        • ByteJunk@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          It depends. Apple is a valid trademark for a computers/electronics company, despite being a common name. It wouldn’t work if you tried to trademark it as an apple pie brand however.

          I assume whoever owns this threads trademark is in the software business too, they may have a valid claim if so.

          • hedgehog@ttrpg.networkEnglish
            1·
            11 months ago

            Threads are a software concept dating back to at least 1967, and “software” is such a broad industry that I wouldn’t expect such a generic term to be able to apply to it in its entirety. Given that their (the plaintiff’s, not Meta’s) specific niche is messaging, where “thread” is another generic term (e.g., a “thread of discussion”) it seems doubly problematic as a trademark.

            That all said, this lawsuit is in the UK, and they don’t even have attorneys over there (they have “barristers” and “solicitors”) and I have no clue if the same trademark standards apply.

            In the US, another barrier would be the target audience. Threads by Meta is a B2C social media app; Threads by the Thread Company is a B2B corporate search index for internal messaging. Trademark dilution isn’t relevant - Threads wasn’t a famous brand before - and trademark infringement is based on the likelihood of customer confusion. Is it likely that a business professional - the sort of person who would be purchasing the B2C service - would confuse it with the social media app? I don’t think so, but that’s up to the legal system to decide.

    • reksas@lemmings.worldEnglish
      4·
      11 months ago

      That would be the sensible approach, but some executive is propably throwing tantrum because of their injured pride. I will be surprised if they just comply.

  • nucawysi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    11 months ago

    I wonder if Posts is taken… lol Twitter switched to one letter. I kind of prefer the made up ethnically ambiguous names than the short ones.

        • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          11·
          11 months ago

          Meta, Microsoft and literally dozens more, quite a few in fields that can already be argued overlap with Twitter and even more are going to keep popping up as Musk adds features to his “everything app”. His only defence is probably going to be arguing nobody should be able to own a single letter trademark which would be hilarious. And absolutely disasterous to him.

  • kingthrillgore@lemmy.mlEnglish
    10·
    11 months ago

    Not to be confused with the movie of the same name that, unlike Meta’s service, made me a miserable drunk

    I’m sure Meta Legal knew and would deal with it when the time came.

    • Natanael@slrpnk.netEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Even the name Meta was trademarked by others and they paid a lot for the rights to use it

  • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ@lemm.eeEnglish
    6·
    11 months ago

    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”.