Facebook’s rebranding or transition to Meta has rather been a difficult journey. When the company first announced it is changing its name to Meta, it faced a trademark dispute over the word “Meta” with another company.
Now, Facebook is facing another roadblock in its journey to develop the metaverse, a virtual world where people can interact with each other by creating avatars. The company is facing legal issues with respect to its infinity logo.
Dfinity Foundation, a not-for-profit blockchain development company has filed a case against Meta for trademark infringement in the U.S. District Court. The Switzerland-based company has alleged that Meta’s ‘infinity-loop’ logo is too similar to the company’s logo and asked the company to stop using it immediately. The company is concerned that if the logos are too similar, it can end up confusing the customers and also feels it could harm its brand image.
Dfinity was founded in 2016 and filed for the federal trademark of its logo in 2018 for decentralized platforms and blockchain technology services. The company has also alleged that Meta knew the company’s trademark and still proceeded with the application in March 2022.
One can also note that both the companies are attracting a similar set of users but Dfinity may have an upper hand here as it got the logo registered before Meta. Dfinity also didn’t claim the color palette as a part of the trademark, meaning the company has rights to every variation of the logo, and the color difference between both logos doesn’t matter.
Meta’s “sordid” history will be harmful to the company’s reputation
The details about this lawsuit became public through a tweet by Trademark attorney, Josh Gerben.
Apart from the concern of confusing customers, Dfinity has more issues. Meta’s “sordid” history when it comes to user privacy can stand as a barrier to the company’s efforts in encouraging people to accept blockchain technology. Now, since Meta seems to be planning to embrace blockchain technology, it can create further confusion for customers as both companies would work in the same industry.
Meta and Dfinity seek to attract the same users, namely those who are looking for an innovative and different internet experience, created by users, for users.
“Meta and Dfinity seek to attract the same users, namely those who are looking for an innovative and different internet experience, created by users, for users. Further, both Meta and Dfinity utilize the same marketing channels such that consumers will likely encounter the marks through those same channels,” said Dfinity’s lawyer in the documents filed with the U.S. District Court.
The company wants the court to stop Meta from using the logo and is also looking to seek profits from the apparent trademark infringement. It is tough to say whether Dfinity will win this case as the infinity symbol is used by several other brands like Microsoft Visual Studio, Infinity Speakers, etc also use it as their logo.
Featured Image Credits: Meta | Dfinity Platform
