It looks like a new fight is starting between tech companies that compete with each other. Figma told TechCrunch that they sent a letter to the popular AI company Lovable, telling them to stop doing certain things.

The letter says Lovable must stop using the name "Dev Mode" for a new product feature. Figma also has a feature called Dev Mode and got the legal right to use the name last year, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.

It's interesting that "dev mode" is a common phrase in many products for software programmers. It's like an edit mode. Big companies like Apple (with iOS), Google (with Chrome), and Microsoft (with Xbox) have features officially named "developer mode," but people often call it "dev mode" in their guides and documents.

The phrase "dev mode" is used a lot. For example, Atlassian used it in products they made years before Figma. It's also a common name for a feature in many free software projects.

Figma told TechCrunch that their trademark is only for the short name "Dev Mode," not the full phrase "developer mode." They said it's similar to trademarking the word "bug" when you mean "debugging."

Figma has to send letters asking others to stop using the word because they want to keep it for themselves. If they don't protect the word, it might become a common word that anyone can use, and then their trademark won't be valid anymore.

Some people online think this word is already common, should not have been allowed to be a trademark, and say Lovable should fight it.

Anton Osika, who is the co-founder and CEO of Lovable, told TechCrunch that his company does not plan to change the feature's name now, even though Figma asked them to.

We'll see if Figma takes more action. They also have other things to focus on, like getting ready for their IPO. But if Figma decides to sue, a legal fight across countries could be expensive for the small Swedish company, Lovable, which recently received $15 million.

What's also interesting is that Lovable is becoming popular in a new area called "vibe coding." This is where users can write what they want, and the product makes it, including the computer code. A new feature called "dev mode" was added recently, which lets users change this code.

Lovable says it competes with Figma. On its website, it says designers can use Lovable "without slow prototyping work in tools like Figma." Many new companies are doing this.

So, this is more than just a fight over a name. It's also a larger rival getting ready to challenge a small, annoying new company. Figma was thought to be worth $12.5 billion about a year ago.

Someone from Figma seemed to agree. They told TechCrunch that Figma has not sent legal warnings to other tech companies, like Microsoft, because their products are in a different group.

Lovable's Osika is ready to fight back. He told TechCrunch that Figma should focus on making their product good, not just using trademarks for marketing. He also said that Lovable is getting customers who used Figma and other design tools made before powerful AI language models.

When asked about the danger of vibe coding products, Dylan Field, the CEO of Figma, told Garry Tan from Y Combinator that he didn't think they were a big problem.

Field said that although people like vibe coding because it is fast, "you also want to help people not just start quickly but also finish the job. That is the problem, and it is true for both design and code."

But Osika also looks ready to compete. When he shared Figma's letter on X, he used a smiling emoji.