Imagine waking up to find that your business has been taken over by a company that is very powerful.
It happened to him when Facebook changed its name to Meta. The name of his business is METAx.
It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Bolognino said it was like watching a movie when he first heard that Facebook was changing its name.
I didn't want to have this scenario. Bolognino said this was not a scenario he would wish on his enemies. Facebook stole the Meta brand from us.
Twelve years ago, Bolognino started his small business to create multi-sensory live experiences using virtual and augmented reality. Bolognino said that business stopped after Facebook announced last year.
The services we offer are the same as the ones we offer.
The attorney for Bolognino reached out to Meta Platforms to complain about the company's actions.
There is an issue of reverse confusion when you have a small player who has been doing their business for a long time, and then you have a giant corporation with sheer arrogance who says 'I'm going to own this mark now and I'm going'
The two companies spent eight months talking. She said that Meta Platforms wouldn't come to the table despite giving over thousands of pages of information.
Consumers wrongly think that my client's services are coming from Facebook when they go out to promote its services.
Her client has no choice but to take legal action. The business has been irrevocably harmed according to the complaint.
CNBC did not hear back after reaching out to Meta Platforms.
No matter how long it takes, Bolognino will continue to fight.
He said that they wanted to be compensated for their 12 years of building a brand so valuable that one of the biggest companies on Earth wanted to steal it from them.
monetary damages are not specified in the lawsuit.
University of Michigan law professor Jessica Litman, co-author of the casebook "Trademarks and Unfair Competition Law: Cases and Materials," said that META has a "plausible claim" against Meta Platforms.
She said that the complaint alleges that the company used the service mark META as a service mark for its business. It doesn't matter what a party's corporate name is, it matters what trademark it uses in its business
There are a lot of other businesses out there that are also using "Meta" as part of their mark, so Meta Platforms might want to be careful about using it.
It will be cheaper to change the name of META than it is to fight the case.
There is a long way to go before meta can grow the metaverse.
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