Typical dick move from Zuck & Co. They should have known better and it's obvious there's an app out there that exists by this name already.
But what exactly is the trademark. Is it just Paper or is it Paper by FiftyThree. If it is just Paper it is for Paper used in mobile apps, iOS app, drawing apps. The first two are on the same game as being able to trademark Candy or Saga while the last is so specific that it leaves an opening for Facebook to do exactly what they did. There's isn't a drawing or even writing app. Anyone looking for a drawing app can clearly see this isn't it. So where is the confusion, Facebook will say. They are both free so even if someone is that dumb, Facebook didn't take any money from them, Facebook will say. and so on.
----------
I hope this app is really better than the standard Facebook app, which just sucks...
I didn't find it to be. If anyone I found it annoying. Might work better on an iPad but on a phone, bleach.
some of the gestures were interesting. A little confusing perhaps but one can adapt. The thing I found particularly annoying was that the section names stay up on the screen so photos etc have "Facebook" or "Sports" covering up big areas. And we have no control over the sources and limits on how many sections we can have up at a time. Why not just let us have all of them
----------
Can't even login to it...
Image
likely too many folks trying to hit it right now. Give it a day or two and try again.
----------
It's not owning a word, it's trademarking within a specific context, which is exactly how trademarks work.
Yep, market matters. That's why Apple Computers basically 'won'. As long as they didn't use the name Apple in relation to anything music (making, recording, selling etc), Apple Records couldn't say boo. Thus why it was the iTunes store and not the Apple Music store. Garageband and not Apple Music Maker
Their trademark doesn't stop any other use of the word, including other product categories. You could use the name Paper for a soft drink, a laundry detergent, a car, whatever...as long as it's not an app.
But that raises a major issue. Apps is a huge group. And if you define it as software that brings computers into the fray as well. Facebook could be doing this to strength the same arguments as the whole King thing with candy and saga. Facebook may be trying to raise the point that a drawing/writing app isn't the same as a reading app (where paper is meant as a shortened version of newspaper, a very common vernacular usage). So allowing Fiftythree to control Paper in all apps is overreaching in the same way that letting King control candy and saga is. What next, Facebook might say, FiftyThree goes after some kid that makes an endless runner game called Paper Boy as infringement.
----------
And it doesn't look like they registered "paper" by itself anyhow.
do you have a link to the information about exactly how they registered. I think folks would find it interesting to see the exact name listing and market listed
----------
This is a really beautiful app
I don't know that I would say 'really beautiful'. The section titles and the odd giant photo that dominates 2/3 the screen rather screws that up. Plus the whole carousel in that giant photo is odd.