Recently there have been some notable developments
regarding the use of trademarks on Facebook.
Earlier this week, Facebook, Inc., publicly announced
that beginning Saturday, June 13th at 12:01 a.m. U.S. EDT,
users of the Facebook website will be allowed for the first
time to create personalized URLs for their Facebook pages
(e.g., facebook.com/yourname).
Facebook, Inc. has created an online form
for trademark owners interested in preventing their
trademarks from being registered as usernames by Facebook
users.
Trademark owners can reserve their trademark on the
Facebook platform by submitting relevant information to
Facebook, Inc. Since Facebook users will be able to
create these names beginning this Saturday, we strongly
recommend that trademark owners reserve their trademarks
before Saturday so that their
trademark is not adopted as a user name by a third
party.
If you learn that a third party has adopted your
trademark as a personal URL on Facebook, you should note that
Facebook has put in place a procedure for dealing with
suspected infringement.
If you are interested in preventing users from using your
trademark as a username, or have any questions regarding the
foregoing, please contact the attorney with whom you usually
work.
