Media reports suggest that social networking website Facebook is close to registering the word “Face” in the USA. They claim that the U.S. Patent And Trademark Office has sent the company a Notice of Allowance, which means they have agreed to grant the registration to Facebook under certain conditions.

If true, it means that Facebook can claim exclusivity over the word “Face” in the USA in relation to “Telecommunication services, namely, providing online chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users in the field of general interest and concerning social and entertainment subject matter, none primarily featuring or relating to motoring or to cars.”

There appear to be no corresponding attempts to register "Face" outside of the USA at this time.

Many will consider it odd that a company should have the right to trademark a word as common as “Face."  However, concerned readers should remember that, as well as the territorial limitation (USA only), the  trade mark owners have to specify the goods/services they will use the mark with (note the specification above, in italics.)  So, use of "Face" in the course of trade outside of the USA and/or outside of this fairly limited definition should be acceptable.