Large companies have a long and overzealous history of fiercely protecting their trademarks against anyone who they believe has infringed upon them, and indeed why shouldn’t they?
When someone has taken the time and money to build a brand as large and powerful as Facebook, it’s only natural that they’ll want to protect that brand against people who would serve to exploit its name in order to make money for themselves. This has happened recently in the case of Facebook ‘homage’ Faceporn (you can guess the URL).
Using a similar branding in terms of logo design and colour scheme, Faceporn attempted to cash in on the global success of Facebook (the most viewed website on the Internet, ahead of Google) by copying its style. Unsurprisingly the higher powers at Facebook were non too pleased at the prospect of an adult website using their image, and they took swift, decisive action. They demanded not only the domain name for the website, but also all of its revenue to date.
The website in question has now been taken down, and sports the following message:
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, faceporn is down until further notice. We are doing our best to come back better than ever.”
“We’re currently working to launch a completely new version of the site, and it will be the best porn site the world has ever seen.”
According to The Register, a Facebook spokesperson commented about the case against the adult website:
“We don’t believe Faceporn should be able to trade on our name and dilute and tarnish our brand while doing so. Where there is brand tarnishment, dilution, or confusion as there is with Faceporn and Facebook, we must enforce our rights to protect the integrity of our trademark.”
Brands tend to be protected very fiercely online, and with everything that Google indexes made available for all to see via SEO, any trademark infringement will be picked up and acted upon.
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