'Face' of Facebook to be trademarked?

The social networking giant hits the patent and trademark office again, this time to try and claim a common word: "face." Facebook is also taking on a small business over the word "book."

Yesterday we brought you a story on how a small two-man company was being sued by Facebook over the use of "book" in their name. Now, they have gone even further to attempt to trademark the word "face." Henry Sneath, a patent and trademark lawyer based in Pittsburgh told CNN Money, "You cannot overtake the use of a generic word people use in everyday speech." But, as we know, that won't stop Mark Zuckerberg, one of the founders of Facebook. The trend now is to take over and own every aspect of Facebook and not just in the business aspect. They want to trademark the words "book" and "face," eliminate the use of any similar buttons, feeds, or displays, and combat any lawsuits filed against it. Recently, Facebook announced the introduction of the Places feature, allowing users to alert their network to their location. It's estimated Facebook will surpass $1 billion in revenues in 2010.