Figma sends cease-and-desist to Lovable over 'Dev Mode'

If you build software, "dev mode" is about as common as "edit mode." Apple, Google, and Microsoft all use some version of developer mode in their platforms, and countless open-source tools have a toggle named after it.

Yet Figma just sent a cease-and-desist letter to Lovable, demanding the fast-growing AI startup stop using the phrase for its new product feature.

Figma confirmed the letter to TechCrunch, pointing out that it successfully registered "Dev Mode" as a trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last year.

Trademarking a generic term?

Figma argues that its trademark covers only the exact abbreviation "Dev Mode," not the full phrase "developer mode." Still, in the eyes of many developers, trademarking it feels like trying to own the word "bug" because you build a debugger.

Companies like Atlassian used "dev mode" years before Figma even applied for protection. But once a company secures a trademark, trademark law essentially forces it to defend the mark, or risk watching it become an unenforceable, generic term.

Lovable is not backing down. The Swedish startup's co-founder and CEO, Anton Osika, told TechCrunch that the company has no intention of complying with Figma's demand or renaming the feature. When Osika shared the polite letter on X, he paired it with a grinning emoji.

The vibe coding turf war

This dispute has very little to do with two words and everything to do with a brewing platform war.

Lovable is one of the breakout stars of the "vibe coding" boom, where users describe software in natural language and the AI builds it alongside the code. A few weeks ago, Lovable launched its own "dev mode" to let builders directly edit the generated code.

Crucially, Lovable takes direct aim at Figma. The company openly boasts on its homepage that teams can build products "without tedious prototyping work in tools like Figma," and Osika claims they are already taking market share from pre-LLM design tools.

Figma's own statements reveal who the real target is. A Figma spokesperson admitted that the company has not targeted giants like Microsoft over the term because those products belong to "a different category of goods and services."

Meanwhile, Figma—valued at $12.5 billion about a year ago—just filed confidential paperwork for an IPO on Tuesday. Last month, Figma CEO Dylan Field downplayed the threat of vibe coding during a chat with Y Combinator's Garry Tan, arguing that rapid prototyping tools struggle to take projects all the way to the finish line.

Why it matters

For builders and creators, the drama highlights just how fast prompt-driven software creation is encroaching on traditional design software. If you run a lean startup, tools like Lovable can turn rough ideas into functional code without ever opening a Figma canvas, even if finishing production-grade code still requires hands-on engineering.

We think Figma's move looks less like standard brand housekeeping and more like pre-IPO muscle flexing. Lovable only raised a $15 million seed round in February, but its direct attacks on Figma's core use case clearly hit a nerve.

Attempting to lock down a widely used industry term might backfire, though. If Lovable pushes back in court, Figma could face community backlash from the very developers it wants to court, while risking the trademark itself if a court agrees that "dev mode" has always been generic.