You may be witnessing the production of a new high-tech industry feud between your competitors. Figma confirmed to TechCrunch that he sent a halt and assumed letter to the unpopular no-code AI startup Lovable.
The letter tells Lovable that new product features will stop using the term “development mode.” With a feature called Dev Mode, Figma successfully registered the term last year, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office.
What’s wild is that “DEV mode” is a common term used in many products that cater to software programmers. It’s like editing mode. Software products from giant companies such as Apple’s iOS, Google’s Chrome, and Microsoft’s Xbox have a feature called “Developer Mode” that is called “Developer Mode” in reference materials.
The “development mode” itself is also commonly used. For example, Atlassian used Figma’s copyright on a product that was significantly dated several years ago. And that is the general feature name for countless open source software projects.
Figma tells TechCrunch that its trademark refers only to the shortcut “development mode” rather than the full term “development mode.” Still, it’s a bit like a trademark that calls the term “bug” “debug.”
Figma wants to own this term, so there are few options other than sending out the characters that are meant to be stopped and assumed. (As many of X pointed out, this letter was also very polite.) If Figma doesn’t defend the term, it will be absorbed as a general term and the trademark will not be enforced.
Some people on the internet have argued that the term is already common and should not be allowed to be registered as a trademark, and that love should not be fought.
Lovable co-founder and CEO Anton Osika told TechCrunch that for now his company respects Figma’s demands and does not intend to rename the feature.
Check if Figma escalates. There may also be other things in your mind. On Tuesday, Figma announced that it had submitted confidential documents to the IPO. However, if Figma pursues legal action, taking on the international legal battle could be expensive for Lovable, an early-stage Swedish startup that raised a $15 million seed round in February.
What’s even more interesting is that Lovable is one of the rising stars of so-called “vibe coding.” There, the user will explain what they need at a text prompt and the product can complete the code. That “development mode” feature was launched a few weeks ago to allow users to edit that code.
Lovable promotes itself as a competitor for Figma, declaring on its homepage that designers can use the lovable “without boring prototyping work with tools like Figma.” And many newly launched startups do just that.
Therefore, this is not just a trademark dispute. They’re also a bigger competitor who breaks knuckles at troubling startups. Figma was valued at $12.5 billion about a year ago.
A spokesman for Figma has largely admitted. The person told TechCrunch that Figma, like Microsoft, had not sent out suspended and assumed letters to other tech companies over the semester.
And Lovable’s Osika is ready to punch a few times on TechCrunch, who he believes “Figma needs to focus on making his product great.” He also tells TechCrunch that Lovable is gaining customers from Figma and other such design tools created before LLMS.
Regarding the overall threat to Vibe Coding products, in a conversation with Y Combinator Garry Tan last month, Figma co-founder CEO Dylan Field naturally poohed the idea.
Despite the fact that the field likes the atmosphere that people code that speed, “You also want to give people a way to get to the finish line as well as quickly as possible. It’s not just for design, but also for code, but also for cutting.”
Still, Osica looks ready to compete. He grinned and used emojis when he shared a copy of Figma’s letter about X.
Note: This story has been updated with comments from Lovable.
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