Facebook Update Stalled by Lawsuit
Tensions rise today as Facebook continues to fight Chicago based company “Timelines” in court. The legal battle has resulted in a judge forcing Facebook to push back the public launch of the Facebook Timelines update and to report how many users are switching on the Timelines developer feature each day.
The initial claim filled by Timeline in a Chicago District court states:
Facebook’s use of the term “Timeline,” and its redirection of Internet traffic from Timelines’ Facebook page to Facebook’s new “Timeline” offering, infringes on Timelines’ federally registered trademarks in that it causes confusion as to the source of the services offered to users of the Internet. Indeed, Facebook’s “Timeline” offering and its misdirection of users attempting to access Timelines’ offering is intended to prevent Internet users from accessing information about Timelines.com and to allow users to instead use Facebook’s “Timeline” offering.
As this legal battle continues it is important to note that even the news coverage of the Facebook Timeline feature has bumped “Timelines” off the top list for their own keyword on Google and would ultimately destroy their entire business model in one foul swoop.
Both Facebook and Timelines will be meeting tomorrow before the Chicago Court to decide the fate of the Facebook Timelines feature. While it is most likely only a mild blow to Facebook it could end up being a devastating one for Timelines.