Facebook avoids lawsuit from Faceparty founder
The co-founder of the British social media website Faceparty could not convince a California district court judge that mental health issues prevented him from taking legal action against Facebook earlier.
Andrew Bamforth represented himself in the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, claiming that the social media giant infringed his ‘Face’ trademarks and copyrights.
Bamforth bought a litany of claims against Facebook, including trademark infringement, trademark dilution, fraud in contract formation and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Facebook countered by moving to dismiss all of Bamforth’s claims in April 2021 for lack of standing and failure to state claim. Facebook’s motion argues, among other things, that Bamforth has no right to plead infringement as he had already assigned his ‘Face’ trademarks to Facebook in 2008.
Bamforth argued that his mental health issues including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder clouded his judgement in signing the agreement, and delayed him from seeking legal action until 2020.
The California court sided with Facebook, dismissing all of Bamforth’s claims with prejudice In an order handed down on September 10. The order stated that he had not presented any compelling reasons why a 2008 agreement to sign over the ‘Face’ trademark to the social media giant should not be considered in the infringement claims.
Early talks
The “world’s first social media networking website”, Faceparty operated between 2000 and 2008 and spawned many copycat websites the copied the blue and white colour scheme, free instant messaging and photo sharing, according to Bamforth.
Facebook, which was created in 2004, Bamforth claims is “highly similar” to Faceparty, including a blue and white colour scheme as well as the word “face” in the name.
In 2006 Bamforth sent a cease and desist letter to Facebook demanding the website change its name. Zuckerberg claimed that the website was “just a school project” and “pleaded” to be allowed to keep his website name, assuring Bamforth that the platform would not be used outside of a school setting. Bamforth agreed to not take action.
When Facebook launched in the UK later in 2006, Faceparty began to “suffer increased brand confusion”, the cost of operating the website increased, and Faceparty began to struggle financially.
In 2008, Bamforth claimed to have had a nervous breakdown and “began to make irrational and poor decisions”, and suffered from a mental disability from 2006 to 2018.
During this time, Bamforth signed an agreement on behalf of his operating company CIS limited which assigned the “Face” trademark to Facebook, a decision that he “did not understand” because of his disability. Because of this, he asked the court not to consider the documents in the proceedings
However, the court ruled that the agreement should be considered if the documents were “integral” to Facebook’s motion to dismiss and that Bamforth did not dispute the authenticity of the agreement.
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