Facebook Sues Over Stolen Thunder

Facebook doesn’t like spammers. It doesn’t like its general counsel to be too liberal. Also not fond of the breast-feeding mothers.  And it apparently doesn’t like little social networking startups stealing its thunder.

 On Tuesday, Facebook sued Power.com, an Internet startup and newest media darling that allows you to put your MySpace, Facebook and other social networking pages in one place on the Web, much the way programs such as Trillian and Pidgin let you combine a bunch of instant messaging identities into one interface.

Perkins Coie lawyer David Chiappetta filed the suit (.pdf) for Facebook. It accuses Power.com of trademark infringement for using the Facebook logo on the Power.com site, violating state laws by collecting information from Facebook profiles, and violations of spam laws by sending unwanted email to Facebook users encouraging them to sign up.

A spokesman for Power.com, which does business in Berkeley, hadn’t heard about the lawsuit and wouldn’t comment.

— Zusha Elinson