We might be seeing the start of a new conflict in the tech industry between companies that compete.

The letter tells Lovable to stop using the name "Dev Mode" for a new product feature. Figma also has a feature called Dev Mode, and they officially registered the name last year, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.

It's interesting that "dev mode" is a common name for a feature in products for programmers. It's similar to an edit mode. Big companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft have features officially called "developer mode" in their products, and people often use the shorter name "dev mode" when they write about them.

The term "dev mode" is widely used. For example, Atlassian used it in software products long before Figma had copyrighted its name. Also, it's a common name for a feature in many open-source software projects.

Figma told TechCrunch that their trademark is just 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."

Figma has to send letters telling people to stop using the term. If they don't protect the term, it could become a common word and they could lose their trademark.

Some people online think this word is already common and shouldn't have been a trademark, so they say Lovable should fight against it.

Anton Osika, who is a founder and the CEO of Lovable, told TechCrunch that his company will not change the feature's name because Figma asked them to.

We will see if Figma takes further action. They also have other important things happening. For example, on Tuesday, Figma announced they had confidentially applied to become a publicly traded company. However, if Figma decides to sue, an international legal fight could be expensive for Lovable. Lovable is a new Swedish company that received $15 million in investment in February.

What's more interesting is that Lovable is becoming popular for something called "vibe coding." This means users can write what they want, and the product creates it, including the code. Its "dev mode" feature started a few weeks ago so users could change that code.

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

So this is not just a fight over a brand name. It also shows a bigger company getting ready to compete with a smaller, newer company it finds annoying. About a year ago, Figma was valued at $12.5 billion.

Someone from Figma almost agreed. They told TechCrunch that Figma hasn't sent legal letters to companies like Microsoft about using the same word because their products are 'in a different type of goods and services.'

Osika from Lovable thinks Figma should focus on making their product better, not just on marketing. He also says that Lovable is taking customers from Figma and other design tools made before large language models (LLMs).

When asked about the danger of vibe coding products, Dylan Field, the co-founder and CEO of Figma, naturally said it wasn't a big deal during a talk with Garry Tan from Y Combinator last month.

Field said that although 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 their projects. This is where the problem is, and it's true for both design and coding."

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