Facing intense scrutiny over users’ data privacy, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg last month announced that his company will have a new name, Meta.Somewhat predictably, Zuckerberg downplayed that this rebranding, the first in Facebook’s 17 years of existence, is to divert a barrage of bad PR.The name “Facebook” doesn’t fully encompass everything the company does now, and is still closely linked to one product, he added.”But over time, I hope we are seen as a metaverse company.”Skulic said that for the last three months, Facebook lawyers have been hounding “us to sell our name to them”.”We refused their offer on multiple bases. Namely, the low offer wouldn’t cover the costs of changing our name, and we insisted on knowing the client and intent, which they did not want to disclose,” he noted.At least two law firms were involved: One in the US that requested its trademark and domains and the other in Europe aggressively contacting trying to get “us to sell its domain registrations,” he alleged.A live trademark was filed for Meta Company in 2016 that lists the registrant owner at Chicago, Illinois. However, there is a 2015 trademark listed for Meta with the owner listed as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.”It’s unfortunate to have been associated with a company so rooted in controversy and fixated on domination. We aim to be distinguished from Facebook’s totalitarian view of the future. We hope the negative association with Facebook and its founder will be forgotten — but we won’t ignore the damages done,” Skulic elaborated.
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