Feb 03, 2014 04:06 PM EST
Paper CEO Tells Facebook To Change Name of New App

Facebook celebrates two things today: its 10th birthday and the launch of a new app called Paper.

The mobile news app has met with success and "is well-conceived and beautifully designed," VentureBeat reported.

The only problem is that "Paper" as an app name was already taken by a startup called FiftyThree, which won an award from Apple in 2012 for its flagship app.

FiftyThree's Paper app features digital versions of pencils, pens and paints so artists can create on the iPad. The app has been downloaded around 10 million times and was named 2012 iPad App of the Year by Apple, VentureBeat reported.

The new app of the same name from Facebook could throw a wrench into things.

"We reached out to Facebook about the confusion their app was creating, and they apologized for not contacting us sooner. But an earnest apology should come with a remedy," FiftyThree CEO Georg said in a blog post. 

"There's a simple fix here. We think Facebook can apply the same degree of thought they put into the app into building a brand name of their own. An app about stories shouldn't start with someone else's story. Facebook should stop using our brand name."

FiftyThree has asked the social network in writing not to use the Paper name. Facebook declined to comment on the name controversy to The New York Times.

The new app from Facebook features news stories and is intended to get users to read content in a magazine-style format.

Facebook is hoping to get members to linger over longer-form Facebook content, including both news stories and posts from friends. While the app is currently advertisement-free, Paper could mean big money for Facebook if the company decides to implement ads.

The company recently reported that 945 million of its 1.2 billion users accessed the site through a smartphone or tablet in the last few months, according to CNN. Mobile use accounts for 53 percent of the site's advertising revenue, a jump from 23 percent in 2012.

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