Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Facebook, Teachbook reach settlement in lawsuit

Teachbook will become TeachQuest under terms of a legal settlement.

Facebook and Teachbook, a social networking site for teachers, have settled a lawsuit that began two years ago when Facebook alleged trademark infringement against the ed-tech company.

Under terms of the agreement, Teachbook has changed its name to TeachQuest and will continue to operate as an online platform dedicated to being a one-stop planning and learning tool for educators, administrators, and students.

A joint statement from the companies read: “We are pleased to announce that Facebook and Teachbook have arrived at an agreement that resolves Facebook’s trademark infringement lawsuit and allows for Teachbook’s continued operation under a new name. Under this agreement, Teachbook has changed its name to ‘TeachQuest.’  Facebook and Teachbook are pleased to put this dispute behind them.”…Read More

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Facebook pokes start-up Teachbook with lawsuit

Facebook is concerned that a start-up social network for teachers with the word “book” in its title is infringing on its own trademarks, CNET reports. The company on Aug. 25 filed a complaint in a California district court against Teachbook, a networking site geared toward teachers. Claiming that Teachbook is “riding on the coattails of the fame and enormous goodwill of the Facebook trademark,” the complaint asserts that the start-up, which is headquartered in a suburb of Chicago, shouldn’t be using the “-book” suffix. “If others could freely use ‘generic plus BOOK’ marks for online networking services targeted to that particular generic category of individuals, the suffix ‘book’ could become a generic term for ‘online community/networking services’ or ‘social networking services.’ That would dilute the distinctiveness of the Facebook marks, impairing their ability to function as unique and distinctive identifiers of Facebook’s goods and services,” the lawsuit claims. Teachbook, which has not yet commented on the matter, doesn’t appear to imitate Facebook’s design or feel, but Facebook’s whole argument is that it doesn’t want the “-book” suffix to become a social-networking term independent of the Facebook brand. The complaint brings up, among other things, that Teachbook markets itself as a social-networking option for teachers whose schools might have blocked or forbidden access to social networks such as Facebook…

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