PALO ALTO — Facebook, Inc.’s release of its news reader app, Paper, on Monday has kicked off a trademark spat with FiftyThree, a Seattle and New York-based startup whose own popular Paper by FiftyThree app has been available for several years. Now, FiftyThree’s co-founder and CEO, Georg Petschnigg, is calling on users to choose sides. “There’s a simple fix here,” Petschnigg wrote on his company’s blog. “We think Facebook can apply the same degree of thought they put into the app into building a brand name of their own.”
Petschnigg hasn’t said yet whether he’ll sue, but over the weekend, the company’s lawyers reportedly sent a letter to the social networking giant, which is declining to comment. The issue is made complicated by the fact that FiftyThree had trademarked only the name “Paper by FiftyThree.” But on Jan. 30, as news of Facebook’s plans broke, FiftyThree filed a trademark application for “Paper.” Its attorney of record on both applications was Stacey Watson of Boston boutique Patent GC.
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