A company called Meta is suing Meta for naming itself Meta

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

There were a few concerns that the company was planning to dominate the metaverse when it changed its name to Meta.

An installation-art company called Meta (or Meta.is) announced Tuesday that it will be suing Meta (or Facebook) for trademark violation, accusing the social network of violating the company's established brand.

On October 28, 2021, Facebook seized our META mark and name, which we put our blood, sweat, and tears into building for over twelve years. After eight months of negotiations, we were left with no choice but to file a lawsuit against them.

The Verge collaborated with Meta.is for several art installations at the festival. We are going to refer to the billion-dollar social media company as Facebook and the smaller augmented-reality company as Meta.is because this is not an endorsement of either side's legal claims.

Meta.is claims that it is impossible to share the name on Facebook because of the privacy scandals. Consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Meta's goods and services originate from Facebook and that Meta is associated with the toxicity that is inextricably linked with Facebook, according to the complaint.

Meta.is holds a valid trademark for the name but may still be facing an uphill battle in court given the wide range of trademark applications Facebook has made since the name change became official There are a number of trademarks that claim the Meta name for non-tech products.

A request for comment was not immediately responded to.