Figma's Trademark Overreach: 'Dev Mode'

Figma sent Lovable a cease-and-desist over “Dev Mode.” The phrase is ordinary developer language, which is exactly why using it as a legal weapon bothers me.

Figma’s Trademark List

Figma has filed or registered a mix of recognizable brands and ordinary software language (see USPTO report):

The Worst Offenders

FIGMA and FIGJAM make sense as brand names. DEV MODE does not. Chrome, Xbox, Jira, and open-source projects have used the phrase for years (see The Verge). CONFIG and SCHEMA are even more basic: trying to own them is like trying to own “settings” or “table.” SUMMIT and FORGE are already crowded by companies such as Microsoft and Atlassian.

Why the Legal Ground Is Weak

The boundary matters Protecting FIGMA is ordinary trademark work. Claiming exclusive product identity in descriptive technical language imposes costs on everyone using that language.

The “Dev Mode” trademark sits on the Supplemental Register, not the Principal Register. That status reflects the term’s descriptive nature and gives it fewer protections than a mark on the Principal Register.

Lovable Should Fight This

Lovable refused to back down, and that is the right move. Common technical language should remain available to the people who use it.

The principle resembles the one in public developer tooling: control can protect a business, but extending control into shared conventions makes the surrounding ecosystem worse.