If you thought you had your suite of domain names protected, think again.
Facebook is now allowing users to create a personalised URL based on a unique username. The personalised URL lets Facebook users find your Facebook page by using the URL http://www.facebook.com/username . With an audience of over 200 million active Facebook users, trade mark owners are legitimately concerned about controlling their Facebook presence.
Trade mark owners were given only 3 days last week to contact Facebook if they wanted to reserve or protect their trade marks from being claimed as usernames. That process is now closed.
Naturally, this raises concerns from a brand protection strategy perspective as Facebook users have the capability to register trade marks as their usernames. For example, under the new scheme, a user can register http://www.facebook.com/nike or http://www.facebook.com/cocacola.
Facebook has pre-empted this problem with a 3-fold approach. Firstly, although the system went live on 13 June 2009, only users who had created a Facebook account before the new username URLs were announced on 9 June 2009 can register a personalised URL. This prevents a flux of new user registrations as registered trade mark owners battle to claim their personalised URL and with it, their piece of the Facebook community pie. Secondly, those companies and other new users who rushed to sign up to Facebook after the announcement was made must wait until 28 June 2009 before they can register a personalised URL. Finally, users can register only one username, and the username is non-transferrable. This reduces the risk of 'name squatting', or registering a username to later 'sell' it to a legitimate owner/ user.
Another protection measure promised by Facebook is that when a profile is deleted, the username attached to that profile will be deleted with it, and the username will not become available again.
The good news is that if you have a trade mark you want to protect, and you didn't alert Facebook last week, all is not lost. If you discover a Facebook user has registered your trade mark in their username, it is possible to lodge a Notice of Intellectual Property Infringement claim with Facebook. While this process is reactionary rather than preventive, it will give some comfort to trade mark owners seeking to protect their brand identity.
Swaab was recently named a 2009 Winner in the ALB Employer of Choice awards, and was winner 'Best Law Firm in Australia (Revenue < $20m)' and 'Attribute Award for Exceptional Service (Australia Wide)' in the 2008 BRW- Client Choice Awards.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
