Zuckerberg faces new Facebook action

by Media Week, Media Week 22-Apr-08

A former college classmate of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is taking legal action against the billionaire entrepreneur seeking to cancel Facebook's legal claim to its name.

In a petition filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, Aaron Greenspan claims that Zuckerberg has no right to trademark the Facebook name, because the term had been used generically for years at Harvard University.

Greenspan further claims that he used the term "Face Book" as part of an online service called houseSYSTEM, before Zuckerberg launched Facebook social networking operation 2004.

The legal action is not the first time that Zuckerberg has faced challenges to his social networking empire.

For the past four years, a trio of Zuckerberg's former college classmates have been disputing Facebook's origin.

They allege in a lawsuit that Zuckerberg stole the social networking concept from them.