Time to make a case over a face!
In a recent update, Mike Berkens announced at his blog that Facebook has been granted the registration of a trademark for “face”.
According to the USPTO, a notice of allowance was issued on 11/23/2010. Facebook applied for a “face” trademark in late 2005, at a time that the now popular social media mish-mash only catered to college students.
Facebook, already known for aggressively going after “face*” or “*book” domains related to social media and online communications could potentially attempt to acquire by force, the domain name Face.com
And here’s where it gets interesting:
Since 2008, the registrant of the domain name is none other than popular attorney, John Berryhill. According to the WHOIS from DomainTools:
Administrative contact:
Technical contact:
Billing contact:
John Berryhill Attorney Trust Account
Which means that Facebook will face a tough reaction, should they attempt to play any funny games with the domain name, Face.com
John Berryhill is known not only for his successful record of defending domain assets for domainers and corporations but also for being a strong proponent of freedom of speech.
