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A former classmate of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has started legal proceedings against the site's right to the trademark.
Aaron Greenspan has filed a petition with the United States Patent and Trademark office in an effort to remove social networking giant Facebook's claim to its name.
Greenspan argues that 23-year-old Zuckerberg had no right to the trademark when he registered it in 2005, as it had been used for decades at Harvard University, reports Associated Press.
It was used to describe any paper or electronic book that featured faces of students.
Greenspan also says he used the name Face Book as part of his online service houseSYSTEM months before Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com.
Greenspan says he has a document trail, including email exchanges, that prove Zuckerberg knew about the houseSYSTEM's student locator feature which used the name, the AP said.
Zuckerberg allegedly considered integrating the feature into his site.
Facebook is no stranger to litigation, with a trio of Zuckerberg's former classmates claiming that he stole the idea for the site off their ConnectU website.
It was reported earlier this month by the New York Times that Facebook is nearing settlement with brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and their partner in ConnectU, Divya Narendra.
Greenspan, who published an open letter to Zuckerberg on his website, acknowledged to the AP that he could drop the petition for the right money. But he also noted that he wants the legal right to use the term Facebook in an upcoming book he plans to publish this month called Authoritas: One student's Harvard admissions and the founding of the Facebook era.
Websites were refusing to let Greenspan advertise the book because of Facebook's trademark.
- NZ HERALD STAFF
