Facebook just released an app called Paper today, which turns your Facebook feed into something that resembles Flipboard. This came as an upsetting surprise to FiftyThree, the studio behind one of my favorite iPad apps, also called Paper.
“There’s a simple fix here. We think Facebook can apply the same degree of thought they put into the app into building a brand name of their own. An app about stories shouldn’t start with someone else’s story. Facebook should stop using our brand name.”
I absolutely adore FiftyThree's app, and I certainly don't have any love for Facebook these days, but they should've seen this coming. 'Paper' is too generic a title to have any reasonable expectation that other developers wouldn't use it. Facebook isn't the only other iOS developer to do this, either (examples: 1, 2).
I'm not trying to be a jerk about this, but trying to claim such a generic word as yours, and ONLY yours, seems pretty indefensible to me. That's just my opinion though—I'm not a copyright lawyer.
