So here’s what’s going on here. The complaint is for a declaratory judgement, which means Facebook threatened to sue Lamebook over trademark infringement, and now the tiny company is suing them first in order to get a preemptive decision from the court that there is, in fact, no wrongdoing. Most probably, Lamebook is doing this to keep the lawsuit in Texas.

According to the complaint, Facebook counsel first contacted Lamebook back in March 2010, asking them to cease and desist using the Lamebook mark and change the name and look of its website. They repeated this request several times over the next few months and are now threatening to take the small company to court to get their way.

Basically, Lamebook’s counterargument is that its site is a clear parody to Facebook and as such does not infringe or dilute the Facebook mark, and enjoys protection under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

None of this is terribly surprising. Remember, Facebook earlier went after Teachbook and Placebook for having the word ‘book’ in their names, rather agressively – I suggested some other companies they could bully or sue next, but actually failed to mention Lamebook.

I’ve reached out to both Facebook and Lamebook about the tensions but neither immediately responded. We’ll update when we learn more.

(Thanks to Kyle from Priorsmart for the help)

You can find the complaint hereunder:

And here’s some funniness from Lamebook:

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Authors: Robin Wauters

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