Or should I write Face™?
As TechCrunch reported in this article Patent Office Agrees To Facebook’s “Face” Trademark on November 23, 2010, FaceBook has received an approval from the US Patent and Technology Office for trademarking the word “Face”.
The US Patent and Technology Office is well known for patenting and trademarking the vaguest concepts (do I need to provide citations for this?), but trademarking the word “Face” is the height of it. The trademark applies to telecommunication services. But what is this thing about “_featuring or relating to motoring or to cars”? _No car can have the word “Face” in its name?
What happens next?
The rise of another absurdity. Once sanctioned, FB will be able to use the trademark to wield their power on Apple’s FaceTime. We will not be able to receive that at face value. We cannot have any face-to-face discussions on the internet. All faces should look like the same and have a “™” printed on them… No saying where this list can end.
For some insights, you can check the comments section of the article mentioned above. Also, there is a discussion going in the Ubuntu Forums US Patent Office Agrees To Facebook’s “face” Trademark