[DEveritt]

There's loads of companies out there with extremely similar names. It's hard to come up with something totally unique. I believe, legally, it just can't be identical to a name already registered in the same state. When I was trying to name my own business, it was amazing to see how many names were already taken just in my state. Not that it makes it right for Meta/Facebook to do whatever they want but any rebranding they chose would probably have stepped on someone's toes.

[reaperducer]

When I was trying to name my own business, it was amazing to see how many names were already taken just in my state.

It's slightly more complicated than that.

It has to be a name that hasn't already been registered to cover one of the pre-existing business categories for your state.

And, it also has to be a name that isn't registered nationally to cover one of the federal pre-existing business categories.

It's possible, and very common, to register a trademark within a single state only. I've done it about a half-dozen times in two state. You do it if you have a product or service that you never expect to go national.

It's how you can have multiple unrelated "#1 Quick Mart" and "Danny's Cleaners" in different parts of the nation.

However, in this case, the complainant is in Iceland, so the American rules you and I know don't apply.

[woojoo666]

> Not that it makes it right for Meta/Facebook to do whatever they want but any rebranding they chose would probably have stepped on someone's toes.

Exactly why I hope Facebook looses this case. Every other startup is being forced to come up with weird unique names, Facebook shouldn't get a pass just because they're big.