A US judge ruled that Facebook should face a trademark infringement trail later this month related to its Timeline feature and other terms.
The US based Timelines filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the social networking giant in 2011 after Facebook revealed that it is adding a timeline feature to its user pages.
Bloomberg reported US District Judge John Darrah’s ruling which said Facebook "has failed to demonstrate, as a matter of law, that the marks are generic."
"At this stage in the proceedings, it is not unreasonable to conclude that as to this group of users, ‘timeline(s)’ has acquired a specific meaning associated with plaintiff," Darrah said.
Timelines started a website in 2009, which allows users to create chronologies tracing historical events.
Timelines attorney journal Douglas Albritton told Bloomberg the company is happy with the ruling and is seeking damages equivalent to Facebook’s timeline-derived ad revenue.
The case is scheduled for trial before the jury on 22nd of this month.
Last month, a US judge recommended the dismissal of Paul Ceglia’s lawsuit against Facebook, after he had claimed about a half ownership stake in the social media firm.
