It looks like a fight is starting between tech companies. Figma has reportedly sent a legal letter to Lovable, a successful AI startup.

The letter says Lovable must stop calling a new product feature "Dev Mode." This is because Figma trademarked that name last year.

It's interesting that "dev mode" is a common name in many products for software programmers. It's like an edit mode. Big companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft have features officially called "developer mode" in products like iOS, Chrome, and Xbox. People often call these features "dev mode" in documents.

The term "dev mode" is often used. For example, Atlassian used it in their products long before Figma. It's also a common name for a feature in many free software projects.

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

Figma needs to send letters telling people to stop using the word because they want to keep it as their own. If Figma doesn't protect the word, it could become a common word that anyone can use, and then their trademark won't work anymore.

Some people online think this word is already common and shouldn't have been trademarked; they believe Lovable should fight.

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

We will see if Figma takes more action. They are also busy with other things. For example, Figma recently said they are planning to sell shares to the public. However, if Figma decides to sue, a legal fight in different countries could cost a lot of money for the new Swedish company, Lovable, which got $15 million in funding in February.

More interestingly, Lovable is becoming famous for something called "vibe coding." With this, users can type a description of what they want, and the program creates it, including the code. A few weeks ago, they added a "dev mode" so users can change that code.

Lovable says it competes with Figma. On its website, it says designers can use Lovable "without the boring prototyping work needed in programs like Figma." And many new startups are using it.

So this is not just a fight about a name. It's also a bigger company getting ready to compete with a small, annoying new rival. About a year ago, Figma was worth $12.5 billion.

Someone from Figma seems to agree. They told a tech website that Figma has not sent legal letters to other companies, such as Microsoft, because their products are for different things.

Osika from Lovable told TechCrunch that Figma should focus on making their product good, not on trademarking. He also said that Lovable is getting customers from Figma and other design tools that were used before large language models (LLMs) were common.

Last month, when asked about the danger of vibe coding products, Figma's co-founder and CEO Dylan Field said it wasn't a problem.

Field said that people like vibe coding because it's fast, but they also need a way to finish their projects, not just start them quickly. He said this is a problem for both design and coding.

Osika also looks ready to compete. He shared a copy of Figma's letter online and used a grinning emoji.