A Dalston start-up which provides buskers with a global audience is being threatened by Facebook over its use of the word ‘face’.
The owners of FaceBusks, a video hosting website that allows performers to receive donations from viewers, were sent an email last month telling them to change the name or risk legal action.
Facebook’s lawyers messaged co-creators Jor’el Mitchell and Servais Louis to tell them the social network has trademarked ‘face’ for their own use, and that the Dalston start-up should therefore “withdraw the domain name facebusks.com or abandon it”.
The letter continued with a warning to the pair that “if it becomes necessary, our client will use all of the means available to them to contest the registration [of FaceBusks as a trademark in America]”.
Mr Mitchell said that when he and Mr Louis saw Facebook’s demands, they “were about to launch globally, and had just secured a lucrative investment – a six-figure sum from a capital investment group who value our company at £200m. It’s very frustrating.”
Mr Mitchell, 28, admitted that though “we’ve been told by our lawyers there’s no legal standpoint, Facebook is a massive entity, and has the ability to draw out the process to the point where we don’t even get in front of a judge and we’re already exhausted financially”.
His business partner Mr Louis, also 28, said the move was counter-productive by the internet giant. “Our platform allows users to connect through Facebook. So if anything, we’re encouraging users to use Facebook.”
He also credited his local area with inspiring the pair to start FaceBusks, saying that: “Dalston allowed our minds to flourish, to become innovators.”
“Hackney has a bad name in the media, and we want to be positive role models to say that Hackney’s not all about gangs and gun crime.”
Facebook said it had no comment on the ongoing legal stand-off.
Similar stories:
Richard Branson launches Virgin StartUp at BoxPark Shoreditch
Shoreditch ‘Village Hall’ aims to let whole of Hackney benefit from tech boom
