Litigators of America have added Facebook as a friend

By Eriq Gardner

In the past year, Facebook has faced a library's worth of nasty ink. 

First, Scrabble-gate. Then Harvard-gate. Let's not forget law-firm-gate.

The social-networking, user-generated, lawsuit-gathering hub inspired the most wrath when it recently tried to change their terms of service for users so as to appear to claim ownership over any photograph and personal updates posted to its site. Faced with a a user rebellion and the threat of a formal legal complaint by a coalition of consumer advocacy groups, it backed down.

Now, Facebook might be getting a taste of its own medicine.

Madison Avenue, home of Don Draper wannabees, is all a-twitter over a new marketing campaign by Mars Snackfood US. 

Mars has launched a website for the popular candy, Skittles, that apes the look and feel of Facebook. (Actually, Mars is also stealing the idea from another company, but that's another story.)

There's something deliciously ironic about Skittles' new brand campaign, but we can't imagine the suits at Facebook will be taking too kindly to this development. After all, they sued a German website last year for similar trademark hijacking.

Yes, things were a lot simpler in Draper's time.