A New York based company called FindMeOn is planning to send a letter to Google about their OpenSocial program. FindMeOn started a project called OpenSN (Open Social Networking) in 2006. OpenSN is a program that converts profiles from a social network to another social network.
“We are planning to formally ask Google to both cease use of the name ‘Open Social’ for their multi-network widget/protocols platform, and end current attempts to trademark it,”
“While our products are not functionally identical, they are obviously similar in design and nature; Google’s choice of naming their product has created an unfortunate confusion between our competing technologies.”
- FindMeOn statement to be released on Monday [Information source: CNET]
While OpenSN is not trademarked, the company has owned OpenSN.org since October 2006 and has been using the name for its business for a year. CNET also pointed out that this will be a major challenge for FindMeOn since other small companies use the term OpenSN for other purposes and given the size of Google.