Facebook points Littergram's name due to its similarity with the name of Instagram
The British anti-litter campaign’s founder is battling with Facebook regarding the choice of the name of application. Littergram has given an invitation to smartphone-users to share photos of rubbish on the streets of Britain and report the area to the council of that region. A 48-years-old businessman, Danny Lucas, from Kent designed that application with the intent to help clean up streets in UK and educate children regarding the issue.
Nevertheless, Facebook have hindered the idea, which states that the name of the application is quite similar to the Facebook-owned picture sharing application Instagram. The company’s US lawyers stated the name was “not acceptable” and should be changed. 3 to 6 months have been given to Lucas to “phase out” the title of the application or face legal action.
The founder of Littergram has responded by describing the claim as “absurd”. He has sent a video-message to CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, asking them to withdraw the demands and collaborate with them to support the new application.
In the video message, Lucas told that re-naming the brand would "destroy all our ingenuity and hard work". “Littergram has become a known name, it puts the Great back into Britain, I truly hope for the sake of the entire UK population, you will have the understanding and compassion to let Littergram continue,” says Lucas
Recently, the company announced earnings of $1.5 billion for the initial quarter of the next year – over 3 times greater than its earnings in 2015 during the same period. Instagram was purchased by the organization for a price of $1 billion 4 years. It is said that 400 million active users use this Facebook’s application on a monthly basis.
Facebook said it hadn’t yet filed a suit against the British app and wished to agree regarding the names outside court. If CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t comply with the requests made by Danny then he will have no option other than to alter the app’s name in the upcoming months or fight a legal battle.
At this phase, the social network is raising an objection regarding trademark registration. The app gained momentum in the past year with many "grot spots" reported. It has also officially partnered with Malling Borough and Tonbridge Council , and wishes to expand this to the rest of local authorities.
Facebook has not responded to the request for comment.
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