Chicago-based tech firm called Meta Company on Saturday announced it is going to court against Facebook, alleging that “Facebook stole our name and livelihood” after the social media firm rebranded last week.
In a statement company founder Nate Skulic said “On October 28th, 2021, Facebook decided to commit trademark infringement and call themselves ‘Meta’.”
“They couldn’t buy us, so they tried to bury us by force of media. We shouldn’t be surprised by these actions – from a company that continually says one thing and does another. Facebook and its operating officers are deceitful and acting in bad faith, not only towards us, but to all of humanity,” he publicly claimed.
“This message may be regarded as a public cease and desist,” Skulic added.
Meta Company has decided to file the necessary legal actions against Facebook.
In order to strive towards the “apparent” dream to contribute to the establishment of a metaverse, Facebook last month rebranded itself as Meta. Several critics pointed out the move as a mere attempt to distract the public from its ongoing scrutiny over users’ data privacy.
The name “Facebook” doesn’t fully encompass everything the company does now and is still closely linked to one product, he added. “But over time, I hope we are seen as a metaverse company.”
Skulic said that for the last three months, “Facebook lawyers have been hounding us to sell our name to them”.
“We refused their offer on multiple bases. Namely, the low offer wouldn’t cover the costs of changing our name, and we insisted on knowing the client and intent, which they did not want to disclose,” he noted. At least two law firms were involved: One in the US that requested its trademark and domains and the other in Europe aggressively contacting trying to get “us to sell its domain registrations,” he alleged.
A live trademark was filed for Meta Company in 2016 that lists the registrant owner at Chicago, Illinois. However, there is a 2015 trademark listed for Meta with the owner listed as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
“It’s unfortunate to have been associated with a company so rooted in controversy and fixated on domination. We aim to be distinguished from Facebook’s totalitarian view of the future. We hope the negative association with Facebook and its founder will be forgotten — but we won’t ignore the damages done,” Skulic elaborated.
Meta (Facebook) is yet to react to these allegations.