Social Networking = Trademark Delay — “Book” +

Facebook asks trademark office for more time to oppose trademarks.

If you want the U.S. Patent and Trademark office to approve a trademark for your social networking site that includes the word “book”, you can expect a challenge.

That’s since Facebook is repeatedly filing requests with the trademark office to extend the time it has to oppose for good cause these trademark registrations.

For example, there’s dart player social network Dartbook. Facebook filed for a 90 day extension to oppose with a month to go ahead of the expiration of Facebook’s opportunity to oppose the mark for good cause, saying it “needs additional time to investigate the claim”.

Ditto for FamilyHomeBook.com, DocBookMD.com, and WookBook.com.

Now, Facebook probably has perfectly legitimate concerns regarding these sites playing off the Facebook name.

If you’re starting a social network I highly recommend avoiding “book” in your name. But if you must, expect Facebook to throw up a red flag.