My company has just been served with a cease and desist order from Facebook claiming that their trademarks, patents and copyright is being infringed by our Kootali software - which we market as a Facebook clone. Specifically they are saying we are infringing on the following areas. Copies and displays Facebook's registered trademarks without authorization Displays Facebook's copyright-protected organizations and compilations Copies Facebook's unqiue patented business methods Essentially what they are saying is that in order to have created our software, we needed to browse the Facebook website, which would go against their terms. Since the company is in India, I'm not sure what kind of legal action they can take - but we're going to get a lawyer involved to see what our options are However, this could set a precedent for any other company who is creating and selling 'clone' software. After reading the response by a former litigation lawyer (http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/blue-jeans-strikes-back) I'm wondering whether we should prepare a similar document The laws under which we are being accused of breaching are: Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C § 100 Lanham Act , 15 U.S.C. Chapter 22 Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act. Cal Penal Code § 502(c) Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030 State Law prohibiting interference with Facebook's business expectations and interests as well as those laws prohibiting unfair competition and unjust enrichment Arm chair lawyers...what do you think? Guilty as sin or not a leg to stand on.
You used the facebook logo on a commercial product. That's trademark infringement. If Facebook sues you, are you willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars to argue your case? - and while you might be able to argue some of their points, the TM infringement is obvious. Retain an intellectual property rights attorney immediately.
Calling your clone "Agriya Facebook" was not a good idea. Looking at your demo pages, you are plainly using the facebook name in an attempt to trade off its goodwill. It is one thing to make a clone of the software, but you can't call it by the same name as the product you copied. Get a lawyer, you are going to need it.
lol are you kidding? http://stemp.agriya.in/agbook/ - facebook logo(slightly edited) all over the page.. not to mention Agriya Facebook © 2007 in the bottom which i'm gonna go out on a limb and say its only for show.. as with most copyrights on the internet lol end of the day you done wrong.. and i'd recommend ya dont take it further do as they have asked you else ya gonna waste alot of money
I'd say you're definitely the one in the wrong. You should change your site and product straight away.
wow, I just clicked on the link and my antivirus showed a virus alert saying "An attack to you computer has just been blocked" Are you(agriya) by any chance trying to distribute any spyware? :S
Yes, they can't do much if you are in India but if you are using services from any American company, you may be in trouble, as they can choose to not offer you their services. For example, hosting, payment processor etc.
You are clearly infringing Facebook's protected trademarks and goodness knows what else. I certainly wouldn't waste money on instructing counsel to try and protect your position. Re you being in India, you are not immune from action. In terms of legal strategy, possible the easiest route for Facebook to take would be to obtain judgement in the US courts, which they could then present to a court in India, who would then (depending on the particular rules of Indian civil procedure) issue their own judgement based on the US judgement, and take the appropriate action (damages, injunction etc). And given that you're going to be lumbered with Facebook's legal costs, that's going to hurt, whichever way you cut it.
And agriaya was not sued, nor were any clones. The chinese version even got 10 million in seed money to start. i'd wait this one out a bit. remember always. Facebook started by Mark ripping off his classmates, the owners of ConnectU.com