A Sao Paulo-court has ordered Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms, Inc. to stop using the name “Meta” in Brazil within 30 days. The verdict was announced by the Sao Paulo State Court of Justice on Wednesday, February 28. The court heard the matter after a local computer services provider with the same name filed a lawsuit, saying that it has been damaged by third parties confusing the two companies.
The court in Sao Paulo ruled that Meta will have to pay 100,000 reais ($20,201) per day if it fails to comply with the decision within 30 days. Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp apart from Facebook, can file an appeal against the decision.
The lawsuit was filed by Barueri-based firm Meta Servicos, which registered its brand in the late 2000s with Brazils’s National Institute for Intellectual Property. The firm said in its complaint that since Mark Zuckerberg’s company changed its name to Meta in 2021, the Brazilian company had been wrongly included in more than 100 lawsuits, and had Instagram profiles disabled for over impersonation.
The Brazilian company mentioned during the trial that the number of cases mistakenly filed against Meta Servicos has increased from 27 to 143 during the duration of the trial.
The court’s ruling comes after a seven-month long court battle over trademark rights between the social networking giant and Meta Serviços.
In the ruling, the judges said that the Brazilian firm’s trademark registration has existed for over a quarter of a century and that foreign companies must comply with local regulations if they wish to operate in Brazil.
Meta, which was formerly known as Facebook, changed its name to Meta in 2021 as a part of re-branding. With the company looking to focus more on building the “metaverse”, a shared virtual environment, it decided to name itself “Meta” to align the brand name with the future vision.
