Timelines.com, a site which provides tools for making multimedia timelines, has filed a lawsuit against Facebook. The company claims that Facebook's upcoming rollout of its new digital-scrapbook-like timeline feature is infringing on its trademarks and creating confusion for users of their service.
It was reported by Mashable that Facebook added fuel to the fire by replacing the Timelines.com Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/timelines) with a redirect to a page showcasing Facebook's new timeline offering. If that was true, the Timelines.com page has since been restored, which would seem to indicate that Facebook is responding.
News stories on the topic are speculating that the suit may force Facebook to halt the "timeline" release. But at least right now, the information Facebook is putting out publicly seems to indicate that Facebook Timeline is moving forward as planned. The Facebook Timeline intro page doesn't mention any delays. I followed some instructions posted online about how to get a sneak peek at what my own timeline profile will look like, and found a notice at the top informing me that my timeline profile will go live on October 8th. Who knows, maybe Facebook figures if worse comes to worst it will just buy Timelines.com and put the issue to sleep.
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An update on this:
Apparently now Facebook is suggesting that they're aiming for an "end of the year" rollout. And it appears that they will, in fact, be seeing Timelines.com in court unless they settle, with a December court date set.
As for the notice I was receiving that promised an October 8th rollout date -- it's now been changed to say that my timeline is only live to other developers.
Originally, Mark Zuckerberg announced at the f8 conference that timelines would be launched in "coming weeks". Some have suggested that a slow rollout is deliberate. Timelines.com is asking the public for help in fighting Facebook on its trademark. I still think Facebook is going to either buy them or settle. They can afford that much easier than they can afford to lose momentum.
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-new-twists-in-facebook-timeline-drama/
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