Facebook rebranding caused shares in Meta Materials to soar 32%

As Facebook rebranded last week a case of confusion led to a 32% increase in the share price of a Canadian company called Meta Materials.
 
Facebook has announced Meta will better “encompass” what the company does, as it broadens its reach beyond social media into areas like virtual reality (VR). But what do you do if you are one of the thousands of businesses already trading as Meta ?
Re branding is not easy at the best of times but in this case it appears that Facebook have chosen a Hebrew word meaning dead.
 
The new name is not unique. It has surprised many, especially as the Instagram handle @meta is already unavailable for use – despite Facebook owning Instagram – as it’s taken by a Canadian motorbike magazine!

Meta is a very commonly used name for several thousand companies in the UK and the registered trademarks run into several thousands as well.

Zuckerberg already had the trademark and the dot com domain name registered for a scientific data research company run as a trust by his wife.
 
Under trademark law, small companies who already use the ‘Meta’ name cannot be deprived of their existing trademark rights, yet they are still at risk, especially if like Apple before them Facebook starts to issue cease and desist notices, telling them to remove Meta from their branding.
 
The question a lot of companies will be asking themselves this morning is whether they can be bothered to fight or not. The real question is that eventually everybody will associate the name Meta with Facebook, and that may or may not be in us be a desirable association.


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