[pp.int.general] Facebook and trademarks

[Pat Maechler v/o Valio]

This April we had a discussion on the pros and cons of the current 
trademark system.
I'd say most pirates acknowledge that the current system may bear 
certain problems, although they are not as severe as with copyright or 
patents.

In reference to that I'd like to mention 2 cases where Facebook inc is 
steering into a quite questionable direction:

Facebook trademarks the term "face" in the US
http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/23/patent-office-agrees-to-facebooks-face-trademark/

Facebook battles over name with Lamebook, a parody website
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/blog-post/2010/11/lamebook_and_facebook_battle_o.html
(and even started to censor it)
http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/22/facebook-blocks-lamebook/

-pat