On June 13, 2009, social networking site Facebook (www.facebook.com) began permitting its members to create specialized usernames. Before the launch of usernames, the Web address of a Facebook user’s profile consisted of a randomly assigned number such as “id=38382038.” With the launch of usernames, however, Facebook members may choose a username that will form a personalized Web address by appending the username onto Facebook’s Web URL. Thus, Facebook members will be able to direct Web traffic more easily to their Facebook profile.
This change has serious implications for owners of intellectual property, particularly for trademark holders. Brand names may now be appended to the Facebook URL to form a link to a Facebook member. For example, Target Corporation’s Facebook profile is now located at www.facebook.com/target. Companies or brands that are using Facebook as part of their marketing and public relations efforts should consider signing up for a username as soon as possible. Social media guide Mashable reported that within the first two days, 6 million custom usernames had been registered (http://bit.ly/1Uf9L). Some of these registered user names may implicate trademark rights. Existing Facebook members may select usernames at www.facebook.com/username/.
This land rush for usernames has the potential to invite a new breed of cybersquatters who are improperly using trademarks to drive Web traffic to their Facebook profiles. Facebook announced its new policy four days before it began implementation. Thus, many companies may have been caught flat-footed by the need to register a username, and may find that their trademarks are being used by individuals without any intellectual property rights to them.
If a username infringes a company’s intellectual property rights, it is also a violation of the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (a.k.a. the Terms of Use). For rights holders seeking to resolve a dispute about a username, Facebook provides very little information about the process (www.facebook.com/help.php?page=899). The company does provide a Notice of Intellectual Property Infringement (Non-Copyright Claim) at http://tinyurl.com/mefyb3. The notice asks a claimant to identify the infringing content and describe how it infringes the intellectual property rights of the claimant. Facebook then makes a determination about what to do with the username.
Because username registration is new, it is difficult to predict the effectiveness of Facebook’s private dispute-resolution process. Nothing appears to preclude other resolution methods, such as private litigation. But for those companies using Facebook as part of their marketing strategy, early registration of trademarked usernames is the best way to protect any intellectual property rights implicated by Facebook’s usernames.