Figma has sent a cease-and-desist letter to AI startup Lovable to stop using the term “Dev Mode” for a new product feature.

This request is based on Figma’s claim that it holds a trademark for the phrase.

Screenshot of the letter. / Photo credit: Anton Osika

Lovable introduced its “Dev Mode” feature several weeks ago. This feature enables users to edit project code.

Figma maintains that Lovable must rename the feature to comply with trademark regulations.

🔗 Source: Anton Osika

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Generic terms face uphill battle for trademark protection

The “Dev Mode” dispute highlights a classic trademark challenge: protecting terms that describe common functionality in an industry.

Trademark law generally limits protection for generic terms that simply describe what a product does, because such terms belong to the public domain rather than any single company.

According to trademark law principles, descriptive terms gain protection only when they acquire “secondary meaning,” when consumers strongly associate the term with a specific brand 1.

Successful trademark protection requires distinctiveness, with courts consistently ruling that functional, descriptive terms face higher hurdles for exclusive use rights 2.

Similar disputes have redefined IP boundaries in technology, particularly when commonly used industry terminology becomes associated with a specific company’s implementation 3.

2️⃣ Trademark enforcement creates friction in collaborative tech ecosystems

This case demonstrates how aggressive trademark enforcement can create tensions in tech communities where terminology is often shared across platforms.