Last month Zoom announced at its annual Zoomtopia conference that it would introduce Zapps. These are apps on Zoom set to enable third-party developers to create as well as distribute apps that enhance the Zoom meeting experience/workflow with the express goal of increasing productivity before, during, and after meetings. Set to make their way to the Zoom platform by the end of 2020, Zapps were to become open to developers shortly thereafter. At the time of the announcement, Zoom said it had over 35 launch partners, including Asana, Atlassian, Box, Dropbox, Hubspot, Kahoot, Kaltura, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Slack, SurveyMonkey, and Zendesk.
That could all change, however, which is something I think most could have predicted given the name of the offering Zapps, which bears a striking resemblance to Zapier branding. On Monday in the Northern District of California, Zapier Inc. filed a formal grievance against video conferencing giant Zoom Video Communications Inc., citing trademark infractions and unfair competition. In the complaint, Zapier alleged that Zoom used the name Zapp for its third-party app integration within Zoom, a move it argues violates Zapier’s 'Zap' third-party app integration business.
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Aryeh Reif[/caption]
Zapier further claimed that Zoom is "completely aware of Zapier’s use of Zap and Zaps and the overlap it shares with Zoom's Zapps," noting that its workflows are referred to as Zap or Zaps. Aryeh Reif, Founding Partner, Reif & Reif, a Tel-Aviv-based law firm told me: "It appears that Zapier had not previously registered a trademark in the USA for Zap, although the company has now applied (S/N 90272661) to register Zap as a federal US trademark stating they first used the mark in commerce in the US as early as 2011."
Reif added, it remains to be seen if the mark will get registered. It is also a tossup regarding whether the proof of use Zapier submitted will be accepted by USPTO. "In the absence of a registered trademark, Zapier is relying on other causes of action, such as common law trademark infringement, unfair competition, etc."
