According to The Verge, a smaller company known as Meta has filed a lawsuit against the well-known Meta, Facebook’s parent company.
Founded in 2010, the smaller Meta creates and promotes live, multi-sensory art experiences — sometimes featuring virtual and augmented reality tech — and has catered to clients ranging from National Geographic to Intel.
“On October 28, 2021, Facebook seized our META mark and name, which we put our blood, sweat, and tears into building for over twelve years,” reads a pop-up announcement on the company’s website. “One of the most powerful companies in the world took our identity without notice.”
“Today, after eight months of trying to negotiate with Facebook in good faith to no avail, we were left with no choice but to file a lawsuit against them,” the notice reads.
In October of last year, Facebook renamed its brand and called it Meta.
Facebook doesn’t exactly have the greatest track record with the public, especially when it comes to protecting users’ privacy. The company’s dystopian efforts to establish “the Metaverse” haven’t helped its image, either.
In a complaint filed with a US district court, the smaller Meta claims that “it can no longer provide goods and services under the META mark because consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Meta’s goods and services emanate from Facebook and that Meta is associated with the toxicity that is inextricably linked with Facebook.”
It’s a lawsuit with David versus Goliath odds. While the smaller Meta may have a decent case — after all, it was founded long before Facebook changed its name — it will be far from easy to topple a giant like Facebook in a legal battle.