Facebook Sues German Look Alike

A German counterfeit version of Facebook, known as StudiVZ, is being sued by the world renowned social network.  On Friday, Facebook filed an intellectual property lawsuit against the German company that it has accused of running a “knock-off” of the social networking website. Facebook states that StudiVZ  copied “the look, feel, features and services” of the Facebook site. They also say that the only noticeable difference is the red look of the homepage. Here is a comparison between the two sites: 

• Facebook’s homepage.  

• StudiVZ’s homepage. 

Another reason why Facebook might be going after StudiVZ (which has more than 10 million active users), is due to the lack of member growth on Facebook’s German version of the social network. Facebook also claims that the German clone has Facebook’s “wall” feature, which allows users to leave messages on their friends profile. Problem is, that’s a key feature Facebook is solely known for and is one of the reasons why new users falsely believe that StudiVZ is actually Facebook (or at least in a partnership with them). I actually signed up for the official French version of the StudiVZ site (StudiQG). It is no different than Facebook, and clearly was not original on any note. I give Facebook the “go ahead” to fire all missiles at the copy cats! Feel free to comment.

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