It has been more than a year since a few of us started Leaders 2020 Inc, a company with a mission to enable a enduring and fulfilling professional life to millions of workers worldwide. With over 50+years of experience between 3 of us and hundreds' of interviews we conducted with employees worldwide, we realized that the 2 most important reasons for any employee to stick with a company for the long term are the following.
1. Fit of employee's values with the leader/hiring manager's values (extends to values of the executives in the company)
2. Fit of employee's values with the culture of the organization
We decided to create an application called 'OfficeBook' that job seekers could use to find the right FIT. Our discussions with LinkedIn to release our app on their platform were of no avail. We then released the application on Facebook in May 2008 with approval from Facebook. We met with some of the executives and product management personnel within Facebook to see if 'OfficeBook' could enable Facebook make an entry into the professional landscape (a competitor to LinkedIn) and the discussions went no where. Leaders 2020 also filed for 'OfficeBook' trademark then.
OfficeBook on Facebook was a modestly successful application with 100s of users tagging companies on their organization's culture daily and finding which of the companies matched their values. Hundred's companies worldwide located in all countries from South Africa to the U.S were tagged. However, when Facebook changed their feed flow, the number of users dwindled leading to closure of the company early this year. 'OfficeBook' was also discontinued.
In the last stage of approval of 'OfficeBook' trademark early this year, Facebook hired Cooley Godward Kronish to oppose trademark registration. Why would Facebook use their precious borrowed cash to oppose a trademark being registered by one of their application developers? What was the motivation for the Goliath to pursue this David? This is the same company that approved our application a year ago and was familiar to executives and employees of the company. Facebook in their opposition believe that they will be 'damaged' by the issuance of registration of 'OfficeBook'. Here's their reasoning:
1. Services offered by 'OfficeBook' significantly overlapped with services under Facebook Marks that allows users to share opinions on businesses (Is anyone aware of such a service from Facebook?)
2. OfficeBook will create confusion for Facebook mark where the term BOOK is distinctive as it relates to social networking. (I am sure Netbook, Notebook, Playbook and all other 'book's sound similar to Facebook).
Both reasonings are utterly ridiculous and baseless considering the fact that Facebook approved OfficeBook as an application in May 08 and was also known to some of their executives. Is this the 'Facebook' bully flexing their muscles over a tiny application developer? What is their expecation? That, they will be able to force their weight on poor application developers who will shudder at the might of Facebook to easily give up without a fight?
