TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook just got one step closer to trademarking the word “face.” While there are a number of technical legal caveats,

[f]or all intents and purposes today’s status update bodes well for Facebook’s hold over “Face” usages in “Telecommunication services, namely, providing online chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users in the field of general interest and concerning social and entertainment subject matter, none primarily featuring or relating to motoring or to cars.”

I guess one day it may be difficult to speak of providing “face to face” electronic meetings through an Internet service.  Unless, of course, the entity in question is Facebook.