Facebook has lately been ramping up efforts to obtain registered trademarks in the United States and other countries and regions for a number of products and services it offers or intends to offer in the future.
Fresh off the heels of applying for a trademark for Credits, its virtual payment system, the company is now attempting to gain exclusive rights to the use of the term “Facebook Developer Garage”.
In case you’re not aware, Facebook Developer Garage events are developer get-togethers hosted all over the world, which are being described as “a place to explore, get gritty, tinker, experiment, and test out ideas for Facebook Platform”.
Interestingly, Facebook filed for a trademark in three separate classes, only one of them including “sponsoring and organizing online and live exhibitions and events in the field of software development”. I’m not sure if that means Facebook intends to use the term ‘Developer Garage’ for more endeavors in the future or if they’re simply covering all their bases, but here are the descriptions of the two other classes the company applied a trademark for:
International Class 009: Computer software development tools; computer software for use as an application programming interface (API); application programming interface (API) for computer software which facilitates online services for social networking, building social networking applications and for allowing data retrieval, upload, download, access and management; computer software to enable uploading, downloading, accessing, posting, displaying, tagging, blogging, streaming, linking, sharing or otherwise providing electronic media or information via computer and communication networks.
International Class 042: Computer services, namely, creating virtual communities for registered users to organize groups and events, participate in discussions, and engage in social, business and community networking; computer services, namely, hosting electronic facilities for others for organizing and conducting meetings, events and interactive discussions via communication networks; application service provider (ASP) featuring software to enable or facilitate the uploading, downloading, streaming, posting, displaying, blogging, linking, sharing or otherwise providing electronic media or information over communication networks; providing an online network service that enables users to transfer personal identity data to and share personal identify data with and among multiple websites; providing information from searchable indexes and databases of information, including text, electronic documents, databases, graphics and audio visual information, on computer and communication networks; providing temporary use of non-downloadable software applications for social networking, creating a virtual community, and transmission of audio, video, photographic images, text, graphics and data; computer services in the nature of customized web pages featuring user-defined or specified information, personal profiles, audio, video, photographic images, text, graphics and data.
Trademark applications for ‘Facebook Developer Garage’ were filed in the U.S. on the 24th of March, and in Europe on the 29th of March.
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 1 billion monthly active users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 weeks, half of the schools in the Boston area began demanding a Facebook network. Zuckerberg immediately recruited his friends Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Eduardo Saverin to help build Facebook, and within four months, Facebook added 30 more college networks. The original...
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