• by Wendy Davis , March 1, 2011

Like many companies hoping to tap into social media, an Albany, N.Y.-based spa named Complexions created a Facebook page in fall 2008. By early this year, the company says its page had garnered around 1,000 fans.

In January, however, Facebook allegedly shut down the Albany spa's page because a different spa with a similar name -- Complexions Day Spa, based in Seal Beach, Calif. -- complained that its right to its name was being infringed.

Now the dispute between the two Complexions has landed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of N.Y., where the Albany spa is seeking a court order allowing it to use the name it has operated under since 1987.

In an unusual twist, the Albany spa has sued Facebook and is seeking an injunction requiring the social networking site to restore the spa's page. The spa says in its court papers that losing its Facebook page has resulted in "lost sales and marketing potential."

And in what appears to be a first, the Albany Complexions also claims in court papers that the California spa engaged in false advertising because it allegedly sent "friend" requests to the Albany spa's Facebook fans. The California spa's actions "were deliberately calculated to deceive, mislead and confuse" the Albany spa's customers, the company alleges.

While trademark disputes between companies with the same name have resulted in litigation since the earliest days of the Internet, few if any prior cases involved social-networking sites. In addition, the allegation that one company tried to lure another's Facebook fans appears to be novel, according to Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman.

Goldman also says that even if the Albany Complexions is entitled to continue using its name, it isn't entitled to a court order requiring Facebook to restore its page. The social-networking service has a constitutional right to delete whatever pages it wishes. An order directing Facebook to bring back Complexions' page "would impermissbly circumscribe the service's freedom of speech and the press," Goldman says on his blog.

A lawyer for the California Complexions said the company had not yet been served with the lawsuit. Facebook did not respond to messages seeking comment.