Zuckerberg faces new Facebook challenge

by Tristan O'Carroll, Media Week 16-Apr-08, 12:30

LONDON - 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 Zuckerberg has no right to trademark the Facebook name, because the term had been used generically for years at Harvard University.

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

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

Since 2004, a trio of Zuckerberg's former college classmates have been disputing Facebook's origin, alleging in a lawsuit that Zuckerberg stole the social networking concept from them.