Facebook still embroiled in fight over ‘FB’ mark with non-profit that sold it FB.com domain name.
So you bought a domain name from someone for $8 million plus and you still haven’t settled a trademark dispute with them? Makes no sense to me.
But on Monday Facebook filed an extension request with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to settle a trademark dispute with American Farm Bureau (AFB). The request said the parties are still engaged in settlement talks.
AFB filed a challenge against Facebook when the social network tried to trademark “FB”. During the discussions Facebook bought AFB’s FB.com domain name through an intermediary. Yet it still hadn’t settled the issue over the trademark. And now it’s asking for another 30 days to put the matter to rest.
I’m just amazed that you wouldn’t make a settlement part of the domain purchase.
facebooks asked to buy domain to intermediary so the job finished from their side 😀
Hello Andrew,
There will be further adjusments in domainers heads about the too short to brand names. You better have a strong BRANDING HANDLE before you wander into too many really short names. Your .COM BRAND CHANNEL better make a statement or maybe you ought to go back to the drawing boards. Just trying to be helpfull to Newbies.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
negligence and lack of experience is what occured here.it also shows there was not an ip attorney involved with the sale of fb.com
and you can continue to file extensions,answers i have worked on a deal that took over 8 yrs to register.
and this should be a lesson of power to domainers very clearly the domain fb.com has nothing to do with a “famous” mark worth reportly 50 billion….
They really should have included it as you said. I’ve never really seen Farm Bureau abbreviated FB, but it is common to see “I’m on FB…” Implied FaceBook and .com so it will be interesting to see if they have to settle for very much. I think Farm Bureau also made a mistake selling if they were truly concerned about the actual mark – should have held it until settled imo.