We may be witnessing the makings of a new tech industry feud between competitors. Figma has sent a cease-sand-desist letter to popular no-code ai startup lovable, Figma confirmed to techcrunch.
The Letter Tells Lovable to Stop Using The Term “Dev Mode” for a new product feature. Figma, which also has a feature called Dev Mode, successfully trademarked that 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 programs. It’s like an edit mode. Software products from giant companies like Apple’s iOS, Google’s Chrome, Microsoft’s Xbox Have features formally called “Developer Mode” that then Get Nicknamed “Dev Mode” in Reference Materials.
Even “Dev Mode” itself is commonly used. For instance Atlassian used it in products that pre-date figma ‘s copyright by years. And it’s a common feature name In Countless Open Source Software Projects.
Figma tells techcrunch that its trademark referrs only to the shortcut “dev mode” – not the full term “Developer mode.” Still, it’s a bit like trademarking the term “Bug” to “Debugging.”
Since Figma Wants to Own The Term, it has little choice but send-and-desist letters. (The Letter, as Many on x pointed outWas very polite, too.) If Figma does not defend the term, it would be absorbed as a generic term and the trademarked banks unnforceable.
Some on the internet argue that this term is already general, should never have been allowed to be trademarked, and say lovable Should Fight. (Loveable has not yet responded to our request for comment about that.)
However, Taking on an International Legal Battle Might Be Pricey for the Early-SWEDISH STRTUP. For loveable, Which Raised a $ 15 Million Seed Round in FebruaryChanging the feature name to “Developer Mode” or some other term would be a less expressive option.
What’s more interesting is that lovable is one of the rising stars of so-called “vibe coding.” That’s where users can describe what they want in a text prompt and the product builds it – complete with code. Its “dev mode” feature was launched a few weeks ago to allow users to edit that code.
Lovable advertisements its Its homepage That designers can use lovable “without teedous protyping work in tools like Figma.” And many Newly launched startups are doing just that,
So this isn’t just a trademark dispute. It is also a bigger competitor cracking its knuckles at a pesky upstart. Figma was Valued at $ 12.5 Billion About a year ago.
A Figma spokesperson almost admits as much. The Person Told Techcrunch that Figma has not sent cease-desist letters to other tech companies like microsoft when their products are “in a different category of goodies and services.”
As for the overall threat of vibe coding products, in a conversation Last month with y Combinator’s Garry Tan, Figma Co-Founder Ceo Dylan Field Naturally pooh-poohed the idea.
Field said that even though people like vibe coding for its speed, “You also want to give people a way to not just just get ready and prototype rapidly but also get to the finish line.” is, and not just for design, but also for code. “
As for lovable, co-founder anton osika also see unconcerned about the letter from a competitor’s lawer. When he shared a copy of it on x, he used The Grinning Emoji.