Earlier this month, HTC unveiled some new mobile devices with Facebook hardware buttons. One is called the Salsa, and the other is called the ChaCha. Believe it or not, ChaCha, the company, wasn’t thrilled with the name.
ChaCha is suing HTC over the trademark. ChaCha co-founder Scott Jones gave us the following statement:
"ChaCha has registered trademark rights in the CHACHA mark and has spent years building its rights in its CHACHA brand.
ChaCha initiated the HTC action in order to protect those valuable rights that ChaCha has established in the CHACHA mark."
Interestingly enough, reports came out nearly simultaneously, that the company Xoom is suing Motorola over the Xoom name it’s using for its new Android tablet.
ChaCha (the mobile phone answers service) has placed a significant amount of focus on the mobile space throughout the years, so it’s not as if a phone using the name is in a completely different category. I’m sure ChaCha would be cool with it if it had it’s own hardware button too.
The ChaCha (the phone) does mark a significant milestone for Facebook, as one of the first devices to give the social network an actual hardware button, which should be huge for the already giant company. Think how much more sharing will be done as a result of such a button. Now think if such a button became as standard as a search button on mobile devices.
That could certainly keep Facebook from going the way of MySpace anytime soon.