Timelines.com Fears Confusion with Facebook Timeline Feature, Slaps Social Network with Lawsuit

Posted 10/03/2011 at 10:16am | by Paul Lilly

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Timelines.com bills itself as "the first website that enables people like you to collaboratively record, discover, and share history." The problem is "people like you" are easily confused and apparently won't be able to make heads or tails out of Facebook's new Timeline feature, which is in no way associated with Timelines.com. That angry website fears people won't be able to grasp that concept once Facebook goes full steam with Timelines, so it's taking the social network to court.

"Given the size and reach of Facebook, [the new feature] will essentially eliminate Timelines and leave the public with the confusing impression that plaintiff Timelines is somehow affiliated with Facebook," Timelines.com stated in its lawsuit, according to TheStar.com.

This amounts to a trademark infringement suit, and according to legal documents, Timelines.com thinks Facebook is playing dirty by snagging the Facebook.com/timelines URL. Seriously.

"Facebook's 'Timeline' offering and its misdirection of users attempting to access Timelines' offering is intended to prevent Internet users from accessing information about Timelines.com and to allow users to instead use Facebook's 'Timeline' offering," the suit alleges.

You can read the court documents here.