Pfft. What a silly request. This is an entirely different application.
Should we expect an upcoming blog post from 53 complaining that Crayola has released a new product entitled "Pencil"?
If you want to protect your name, use a protectable name. If you're going to use an entirely generic name then deal with it... wait hang on... Dunder Mifflin just called... they want their name back too.
Insofar as FiftyThree is merely making a polite request as a matter of professional courtesy rather than threatening legal action, then I don't think your criticism applies. They didn't get nasty about it, they didn't cite some bizarre legal arguments where they claimed to forever own the word Paper. They just made a cordial request. I think that's entirely reasonable and makes them come across very good in this situation.
There's a very real possibility that FiftyThree is going to get impacted in all kinds of searches because of this. I don't begrudge them for taking advantage of a marketing opportunity that will get written about in the media that they'd be fools to not take advantage of. Their business could conceivably be on the line.
You're certainly free to disagree or feel all the sympathy you want to for Facebook here, but I don't think most people would see it the same way.
These are the risks of choosing a product name that is one of the most common items in the world. The benefits are familiarity and comfort; the risk is that anyone can start using it.
>If they make enough stink they can maintain their brand.
This is it exactly. Copyright and trademark are not the same thing, but many people confuse them. You have it right: With trademark the burden is on FiftyThree to defend it. The fact that they are doing that so politely makes me like them more.
So, when a big gorilla company uses the name of your well known (and with your use it already known to them) application / webpage that you've worked for years on, I wish you a good luck "trying to ride this publicity gravy train".
When a big company decides to use your name, your options are very limited. You can try to take the fight legal (and face the big company's entire legal team plus the distraction of suing a behemoth). Or, you can turn their massive publicity machine against them and set yourself up as an underdog.
The media loves David v. Goliath stories and being cast as David could have profound marketing opportunities for 53. Kudos to 53 for having the sense to handle this gracefully.
Whats more, Wacom also has an app called Paper, which does something very similar to 53 paper. Not sure which one was there first, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was Wacom.
Sorry, wrong developer, same point. The actual developer name is Contradictory. Timeline:
(1) Contradictory made "Paper"
(2) 53 made "Paper by 53", with the same function as "Paper" (just a lot better)
(3) Facebook made "Paper - stories from Facebook"
Should we expect an upcoming blog post from 53 complaining that Crayola has released a new product entitled "Pencil"?
If you want to protect your name, use a protectable name. If you're going to use an entirely generic name then deal with it... wait hang on... Dunder Mifflin just called... they want their name back too.
Cool company, great products, daft blog post.