Facebook Sues Copycat Teacher Network Teachbook Site

Citing trademark infringement, social networking heavyweight is suing a startup networking site Teachbook for using “book” in its name. In the suit, Facebook is alleging federal trademark dilution, trademark infringement and unfair competition.

Teachbook, which says that it is a community for teachers where users can share lesson plans, get advice, and connect with other educators, had created a site similar in scope to Facebook, but rather than social, Teachbook is offering a professional network site for educators. The homepage had a message, that has since been removed, stating, “Many schools forbid their teachers to maintain Facebook and MySpace accounts … With Teachbook, you can manage your profile.”

For Facebook, which has grown possessive of the “book” suffix, this isn’t the first legal suit that the company has brought up. It had pursued PlaceBook before, forcing that company to change its travel site to TripTrace. Facebook seems to be following in Apple’s footsteps; Apple had been known for some time to go after sites and companies that use “pod” as a suffix in an attempt to protect its iPod trademark.