Ondrej Holzman What a surprise it must have been for studio FiftyThree last Thursday when Facebook unveiled its new iPhone app with the exact same name as the Seattle-New York-based team's flagship product, Paper. And FiftyThree understandably doesn't like it…
There are dozens of apps in the App Store that have the word in their name paper (in English, paper), but probably the most famous bearer of this word in its name so far has been a graphic application Paper by FiftyThree. App of the year 2012 is one of the most popular sketching and painting tools for the iPad, and after its success, the FiftyThree studio even threw itself into creating apps in addition to accessories.
But now there are already two big players in the App Store called Paper - FiftyThree has joined with its own new application Facebook, which has its own Paper apparently big plans. The social network didn't address potential problems with the name in advance, FiftyThree learned about its plans just before the app was launched, and is now demanding that Facebook change the name of its app.
It was a surprise when we learned along with others on January 30 that Facebook is introducing an app with the same name – Paper. Not only were we confused, but so were our customers (Twitter) and print (1,2,3,4). Is it the same Paper? No. Has FiftyThree been bought out? Definitely not. So what's going on?
We contacted Facebook about the confusion their new app caused and they apologized for not contacting us sooner. But a real apology should also come with a remedy.
Studio FiftyThree believes that Facebook should not use the same name as it, although it has no legal claim to the word "Paper". "It has a simple solution. Facebook should stop using our brand name," he writes further in his post contribution FiftyThree.
At least the good news for FiftyThree at this point is that Facebook Papers exists only for iPhone and Paper by FiftyThree only for the iPad, so the App Store search results won't intersect as often, but it's almost certain that Facebook will soon make its way to the iPad (among other platforms) with its new app. What will the situation look like afterwards? Will one company benefit from the fame of the other, or will it be the other way around?
At FiftyThree they are clear - Paper is their name and Facebook should change theirs. But it cannot be expected that the social network would take such a step as rebranding after such a large media campaign and at a time when the product has been available for download for several hours. FiftyThree most likely has to accept the fact that there is nothing they can do against the "big Facebook".
That's bullshit:D it's like Mc complaining to Burgerking that they have cheesburger on the menu:D that's absurd.