Facebook Settles with Lamebook over Trademark Dispute

The trademark battle between Facebook and the parody site Lamebook.com is over, reports the Daily Business Review.

The companies have reached an agreement that lets Lamebook continue to operate under its current name. But Lamebook, which mocks the funny and “lame” things people post on Facebook, will add a disclaimer to its website and will not seek trademark protection for its name.

“The parties are now satisfied that users are not likely to be confused,” the companies said in a joint statement on Aug. 25.

After receiving cease-and-desist letters from Facebook attorneys in March 2010, Lamebook sued the social networking site in November in federal court in Austin, Texas, asking the court to declare that the term “Lamebook” does not infringe Facebook’s trademarks.

Lamebook attorneys argued that the site isn’t a social network; it ‘s an obvious parody that is protected by the First Amendment.

Four days later, lawyers for Facebook, Cooley in San Francisco and Palo Alto, Calif., sued Lamebook for trademark infringement in federal court in San Jose.  Facebook unsuccessfully tried to have Lamebook’s suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas transferred to the Northern District of California. So Facebook dismissed the California suit in June without prejudice, and then filed counterclaims against Lamebook in the Texas suit. That suit was dismissed without prejudice.

How do you think the lawsuit would have resolved had it not been settled?