Facebook has been accused of ‘exorcising’ the small tech business Meta Mark

A small business owner is suing Meta Platforms Inc., formerly known as Facebook, accusing the Internet giant of “brazenly violating basic intellectual property rights under US law to destroy small businesses.”

METAx, LLC (Meta) was founded in 2010 by Justin “JB” Bolognino, who, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is a respected figure in the virtual reality community and “is real. Augmented Reality (“AR”), a virtual An industry pioneer in immersive and experiential technologies, including virtual reality (“VR”) and augmented reality (“XR”), Meta has consistently used the term “meta” as an amalgamation symbol and since 2003 has been commonly referred to as Meta in trade and commerce. It is in. The complaint detailed the list of goods and services provided by Meta, which includes immersive experiences and social networking platform.

Meta’s American trademarks are US Reg. No. 5,194,332 in International Class 35 for miscellaneous services of “social media strategy and marketing consulting helping clients create and extend their products and marketing strategies by building viral marketing solutions”; and (2) US Reg. No. 6,055,841 in International Class 41 for miscellaneous services entitled “Entertainment, namely, community sports and cultural events through digital, virtual and augmented reality filmmaking and interactive light, sound and motion displays.

Despite the registration of Meta, in 2016, Meta and Facebook discussed the possibility of working together on future projects, but Facebook officially started using the brand name Meta and started using the Meta mark as a new name. In the year Released in October 2021. As part of the announcement, Facebook executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, explained that the company’s new focus will be on the “experiences” offered by Meta.

In addition, Facebook began receiving “third-party trademark applications and registrations for META-formative marks” before October 2021, following a direct acknowledgment of the complaint as a “threat of infringement and infringement of prior business rights.” He is trying to collect arrows in the pond to crush the existing businesses. However, Facebook hasn’t reached out to Meta. The complaint explains:

Having failed to find Meta, either knowingly or through surveillance, Facebook is now simply trying to drive Meta out of business, using Facebook’s wealth, market dominance and PR machine to exhaust social media. , mainstream media, internet, streaming and television.

In the year Facebook’s dealings with Meta in 2016 and 2017 prove willful infringement, the complaint said. Meta notified Facebook in writing in December 2021 of the overlap between the companies’ goods and services, to which Facebook responded that the two companies offered “very different goods and services” and that Facebook was a “social technology company.” Despite those assurances, in March 2022, Facebook announced at SXSW that it would be offering Experience Services, which the complaint said were “identical” to those offered by Meta. Facebook offered similar experiences at Coachella in April 2022 and at the Smithsonian between May and June 2022. Facebook has also recently partnered with fashion brands such as Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Browne to allow consumers to shop for clothes for their avatars through VR and AR on Metaverse. Technology, like Meta with Nike, Neiman Marcus and Y-3 among other projects.

The complaint alleges that Facebook is creating actual confusion by targeting the same consumers and “destroying” the meta tag. “Because of Facebook’s behavior…Meta’s business and Meta’s brand are inextricably linked and shrouded in a veil of toxicity that has enveloped Facebook – Facebook’s products harm the health of teenage girls, spawn terrorism and hate groups, aid human trafficking and human exploitation, promote religious hatred, “Covid and the spread of political misinformation have even facilitated genocide in countries like Myanmar…” the complaint says.

Meta, represented by Pryor Cashman, is seeking an injunction against Facebook’s use of its mark, actual damages, exemplary and trademark damages, willful infringement and unfair competition.