[gamblor956]

Hmm. Had a client a few years back with the word "face" at the start of their name. Facebook predictably sued them. I sent their counsel a response containing simply,"Suck my [expletive]" and a citation to the USTP manual on trademarks (website has changed, but the same material can now be found at https://tmep.uspto.gov/RDMS/TMEP/current#/current/TMEP-1400d...) and never heard back from them.

Cost my client about $125 in legal fees...

[mittermayr]

Well, I had a call with them (or, their law firm), and they referred me to a few ongoing cases where some startups were (rightfully so) battling them, but one of those legal battles had been going on for three years already, and the underlying message was pretty clear: Facebook has no problem lawyering anyone to death over time. I'm not in the trademark business, so I opted to move away and have a few articles written about the incident for the record. That's it.

[gamblor956]

My point was that it sounds like you lost because you didn't even try to fight them, which is what their strategy was relying on.

I can't comment on the other cases or why they were ongoing, but the only cases I know where Facebook didn't fold immediately when challenged by legal counsel were ones were the startups were actually trying to ride on Facebook's trademarked coattails and naming their product/using colors/fonts/etc similar to Facebook so as to trick consumers into thinking their product was affiliated in some way with facebook. Those are fights that Facebook won't back down on, nor should they.