It seems a new disagreement is starting in the tech world between companies. Figma has sent a legal letter to a popular new company called Lovable, which uses AI without needing to write code. Figma told TechCrunch this is true.

The letter tells Lovable to stop using the name "Dev Mode" for a new product feature. Figma has a feature with the same name, and they trademarked it last year, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.

It's interesting that "dev mode" is a common name used in many products for software programmers. It's similar to an edit mode. Big companies like Apple (iOS), Google (Chrome), and Microsoft (Xbox) officially call these features "developer mode," and then people often call them "dev mode" in guides and documents.

The term "dev mode" is often used. For example, Atlassian used it in their products years before Figma's copyright. It is also a common feature name in many open source 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 like trademarking the word "bug" when you mean "debugging."

To protect the word, Figma must send legal letters asking others to stop using it. If Figma doesn't do this, the word could become a common term, and they might lose the right to protect it.

Some people online say this term is already used by everyone, should not have been allowed to be a trademark, and think Lovable should fight against it.

Anton Osika, who is the co-founder and CEO of Lovable, told TechCrunch that his company does not plan to do what Figma asked and change the name of the feature.

We'll see if Figma takes stronger action. They are also busy with other matters. For instance, on Tuesday, Figma announced they had privately applied to sell their shares on the stock market. However, if Figma chooses to go to court, an international legal dispute could be costly for the new Swedish company, Lovable, which got $15 million in funding in February.

What's more interesting is that Lovable is becoming popular in something called "vibe coding." This is when users describe what they want, and the product makes it with all the code needed. A feature called "dev mode" was added recently so users can change the code.

Lovable says it competes with Figma. On its website, it says designers can use Lovable "without boring prototyping tasks in programs like Figma." And many new companies are doing this.

So this isn't just a fight over a name. It's also a larger competitor getting ready to challenge a small new company. About a year ago, Figma was worth $12.5 billion.

Someone from Figma almost agreed. They told TechCrunch that Figma hasn't sent warnings to other tech companies like Microsoft about using the word because their products are different kinds of goods and services.

Osika from Lovable is also ready to argue. He told TechCrunch that Figma should work on making their product better, not just use trademarks for marketing. He also said that Lovable is successfully getting customers who used Figma and other older design tools to switch to Lovable.

Last month, when talking with Garry Tan from Y Combinator, Dylan Field, who started Figma and is its CEO, naturally didn't think the danger from vibe coding products was very serious.

Field said that even though people like vibe coding because it's fast, "you also want to help people not just start quickly and make early versions, but also finish the project. This is the problem, and it's true for both design and code."

Osika also seems ready to compete. He shared a copy of Figma's letter on X and used a grinning emoji.