Facebook Sues 'Face Book of Sex' Porn Site

Zero sex appeal

​Just the other day scientists released a study that showed Facebooking (is that a word?) releases the same chemicals that are released in your brain during orgasms.

And when you think about it, it explains why the social networking giant has attracted more than 500 million users worldwide.

It also makes sense that Mark Zuckerberg might feel a bit threatened by a Facebook site that combines sex and social networking.

The Zuck is suing an online porn site, accusing it of piggybacking on Facebook's fame for its own financial gain.

The site called Face Book Of Sex (NSFW, obviously) uses a very similar logo, the only minor difference being a space between "face" and "book."

Oh, and then there is the sex part.

The porn site's mission is to "promote the sexy side of social networking," which is arguably a more narrow goal than what Zuckerberg had in mind when he launched Facebook in 2004.

Apart from the porn, the two companies offer similar services, which makes the trademark issue even more egregious, according to the suit. As we all know, Facebook, with its 500 million users, is a social networking site where users create profiles with photos and personal information, and can share content, including videos. Likewise, the sexy Face Book allows users to create profiles and display pictures -- pornographic pictures.

The porn is designed similarly, riffing off Facebook's "like" feature for uploaded content.

Zuckerberg's company argues that the porn site, which also uses the blue banner across the top of its pages, will dilute, to put it politely, its multibillion-dollar company's trademarks. Facebook claims that the porn site has displayed "Face Book" in a different color and more prominent font to "Of Sex" to make Face Book jump out for viewers.

So in terms of services, there is a big difference -- but in terms of the name, Facebook argues it's not a stretch.

"Face Book of Sex site is just part of their larger, calculated scheme to misappropriate the Facebook marks for their own financial gain," the company says in its lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in San Francisco.

Zuckerberg might have a good point -- it's hard to compete with sex.

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