In the same week that it started rolling out its Timeline feature to New Zealand users, Facebook also filed a countersuit against Timelines.com, a company accusing the social network of infringing on its name.

Timelines.com sued Facebook in late September, arguing that Facebook's Timeline is "confusingly similar" to Timelines.com.

Facebook Timeline, unveiled at September's f8 conference, serves as a digital "this is your life." Once available, users can chart their entire Facebook history via Timeline, from their first friend to the most recent status update.

Timelines.com says its website "gives users the ability to create customized web pages featuring user-defined information about historical, current and upcoming events." The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the company a trademark for Timelines in September 2009.

In its response to the Timelines.com suit, Facebook acknowledges as much, and said it was aware of the trademark. But Facebook "determined that ...the term 'timelines' is merely descriptive of, or generic for, the services offered by [Timelines.com] and thus [Timlines.com's] trademark registrations are unenforceable and subject to cancellation." However, this is a dangerous game for Facebook, a company that is no stranger to trademark infringement lawsuits, having sued several companies for their use of the terms "Face" and "Book."

In the wake of the Facebook Timeline announcement, Timelines.com's Facebook page redirected to Facebook's new Timeline feature. In its filing, Facebook said the move was a mistake and swiftly corrected; the social network denied that it was intended to dissuade people from visiting the Timelines.com Facebook page.

Facebook also denied that Timeline will ultimately crush Timelines.com, which said "the public has or will assume that Facebook's Timeline is really Timelines and Timelines will lose the value of its Timelines trademark. Timelines may come to be seen as the infringer, which will harm its reputation and good will."

Facebook's Timeline, meanwhile, started rolling out in New Zealand this week, where Facebook will monitor its progress before releasing it in other parts of the world.

For more information regarding trademark or copyright please contact us directly.