The fact that Meta removed Threads Software from FB implies that Meta itself considered there to be a likelihood of confusion between the two. They should lose hard here.
I agree that does seem to be something of a smoking gun.
And it’s not without precedent to secure an injunction against as US tech company launching a new service - gmail was known as googlemail in the UK and some European countries for several years owing to a trademark dispute (https://www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2010/may/04/digital-me...)
But sadly a lot of trademark and copyright cases come down to who has the bigger pile of cash behind them.
That first argument just sounds like bullying and may be anti-competitive business practices. IANAL but I think refusing a specific person's access to your product specifically because they refused to sign a separate contract with you would be seen as a pretty clear case of you abusing your market control and probably some form of coercion. I'd love to see FB declare that - but it's much more likely they'd stick to "Oh, violated our TOS for some reason".
"Oh? What?... Oops, The Algorithm banned your fanpage because it was flagged, wait, let me check, ah yes, multiple reports of trademark violation on behalf of... Meta? Oh that's us. I apologize, it seems our employees were ever so vigilant but didn't know your app is a thing. An innocent false positive, nothing more."
And it’s not without precedent to secure an injunction against as US tech company launching a new service - gmail was known as googlemail in the UK and some European countries for several years owing to a trademark dispute (https://www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2010/may/04/digital-me...)
But sadly a lot of trademark and copyright cases come down to who has the bigger pile of cash behind them.