Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Flybook in trademark dispute with Facebook
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
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Global social networking service (SNS) giant Facebook has been engaged in a trademark dispute with Flybook, a Korean startup company offering SNS-based book information-sharing services.
Facebook sent a letter by certified mail last week, demanding that the startup limit its business to books and electronic publications, claiming the startup’s name, Flybook, is too similar to Facebook.
Certified mail is commonly used when a lawsuit is in the offing, suggesting Facebook and Flybook could soon be headed to court.
Flybook, incorporated a year ago, registered the trademark before offering its services.
In the mailing, Facebook asked Flybook to drop the use of a brand image similar to Facebook.
It also insisted Flybook amend the trademark through the Korean Intellectual Property Office and run its business only in relation to print and electronic publications.
Facebook also requested Flybook to reply by Friday, and said Facebook was considering legal action to hold back Flybook’s registration of the trademark.
It said Flybook was using “F,” just like Facebook with same suffix, “book,” which might confuse consumers.
Facebook stopped short of demanding that Flybook change its name.
Flybook allows users to recommend particular books to their friends, and they can also send the book as a present to another user through the app. More than 10,000 people have downloaded the app.
“Since it is a SNS-based service, we can broaden our business area to various kinds of cultural content, such as movies, in the future,” said a Flybook spokesman.
“It’s unfair for Facebook to try to stifle the business of a small startup for unacceptable reasons.”
A patent attorney, who asked not to be named, also said the demands could be seen as an abuse of Facebook’s power, as it technically did not have any right to demand other SNS-related companies reduce their areas of business operations.
“Facebook and Flybook are obviously different in terms of their names, and the business is different, too,” he said. “Of course the startup can take legal action, but it will cost a lot of money, which is a burden for a small company.”
The Flybook spokesman said it hoped a legal dispute could be avoided, but said the company could not give up its name.