LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Meta through its UK lawyers Bird & Bird is attempting to revoke the trademark protections of UK software company Threads Software Limited.
It is the latest bullying tactic from the global giant and owner of the Threads social media platform.
When Meta launched its Threads service, Threads Software wrote to the company to object, pointing out that it owns and uses the Threads trademark in the UK and that Meta’s app provides functionality which could easily be confused with Threads Software’s service.
Threads Software Limited gave Meta 30 days to stop using the name Threads for their service in the UK.
Meta responded by taking down Threads Software’s Facebook page on the spurious ground that it had breached the site rules. It has now attacked Threads Software’s trademark registration.
Dr John Yardley, Managing Director of Threads Software says: “It is legal bullying - an action designed to make us incur legal costs solely to protect our existing rights and to delay potential court action. It is the action of a huge corporation with massive legal budgets trying to suppress a small business rather than respecting their rights.
“If Meta’s rights were being infringed, they would take exactly the same steps to defend themselves. But instead of respecting our rights, they use their huge resources to attack our small business assuming that we don’t have the same deep pockets to fund legal costs.”
Threads, an intelligent message hub provided by Threads Software Limited, was conceived and trademarked in 2012 by JPY Ltd. The service has been actively promoted worldwide since 2014. In 2018, JPY Ltd spun off a new company, Threads Software Ltd, and has since licenced its software to nearly 1,000 organisations worldwide with sales currently growing at 200% a year.
Meta and its lawyers claim that Threads Software Ltd “does not appear to us to be software for the extraction of business information and knowledge.” They add that “the trademark has been registered for more than five years it can be removed from the register on the grounds of non-use.”
Dr John Yardley adds: “Meta and its lawyers clearly have no idea what the Threads Intelligent Message Hub does nor how it is being used - although Meta thought its service was sufficiently similar to ours to remove Threads Software from Facebook. Something they have now reversed.
“For their benefit, our Threads Intelligent Message Hub is a cloud-based service that captures, transcribes, and organises all a company’s digital messages, including emails, phone calls and social messages, into one easily searchable database. Its heart is very much ‘the extraction of business information and knowledge’ for over 1,000 organisations worldwide.
“Meta’s attempt to revoke the trademark registered by Threads Software is legal bullying, effectively restricting any legal action to protect Threads Software for six months or more.
“They will fail in this attack, but we do not know how long this will take given they will automatically have a right to appeal any IPO decision. And all of this time, Meta continues to be in breach of our trademark, using expensive lawyers knowing they have near infinite financial resources.”
About Threads Software
Threads is a Cloud-based service that captures, transcribes, and organises all of a company’s digital messages (emails and phone calls) into one easily searchable database.
Message meta-data is extracted to automatically and intelligently create a subscriber-specific address book, eliminating the need to manually maintain directories of contacts and companies.
Threads provides high-quality transcriptions by extracting VoIP call and routing data at much greater resolution than most call recording systems. Additionally, by intelligently processing email data, Threads can apply vital context to phone calls and further improve its understanding of speech.
Visit https://threads.cloud/.