Everybody is talking about Facebook and the dramatic change of its company name as recently announced by it.

Partners and members of S. Horowitz’s Intellectual Property Practice Group, Avi Ordo and Moran Katz explain that “rebranding is quite a common move. The considerations guiding a company when choosing a new name or trademark are the desire to stand out by means of the name and the desire to transmit an idea about the company. They add that “Choosing a new name is sometimes tricky from a legal perspective since it is difficult to protect and register names that describe the company’s activity or its products”.

So what do they have to say about the name ‘Meta’? Can this name be registered and protected in Israel?

Avi and Moran say that “A company in the field of augmented reality already tried to register ‘Meta’ as a trademark in Israel in the past, however, the Trade Marks Office refused to accept it arguing that ‘Meta’ should remain in the public domain.
It will be interesting to watch what happens when Facebook will come and seek to register its new name in Israel”.

As experts in the IP field, S. Horowitz & Co. has the expertise and knowledge also to handle such cases.