Facebook may have Don Draper pitching its new timeline interface in fan-made viral videos, but that doesn’t mean that it’ll roll out to universal acclaim. Or, in fact, that it will necessarily roll out at all.
Timelines, a Chicago-based website that offers users the chance to “collaboratively record, discover and share history” has filed a lawsuit claiming that Facebook is infringing on its trademark with the new offering, and seeking to prevent itself from “being rolled over and quite possibly eliminated by… the world’s largest and most powerful social media company.”
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Timelines, which has been around since 2008, has a strong claim to the idea that Facebook’s timelines will confuse consumers looking for, as the suit puts it, “a web site that gives users the ability to create customized web pages featuring user-defined information about historical, current and upcoming events,” given that’s pretty much what Facebook’s timeline feature offers.
The social media giant has yet to respond to the lawsuit, but given the amount of promotion that’s already been thrown behind Facebook timelines, it’s unlikely to be something the company won’t fight to defend.
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Graeme McMillan is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @Graemem or on Facebook at Facebook/Graeme.McMillan. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.