Blog Post: Protect Your Company's Brand On Facebook!

Do your employees have facebook pages?  If they do (and I guarantee you that some of them do), consider protecting your company's trademarked name from abuse on Facebook.  Starting June 13 Facebook users can change their URL to a name.  Even yours. 

In light of recent cases, you would be wise to suspect that employees are gathering to talk about your practices.  Might they use your name to identify a cyber gathering place?  And if the page is "invitation only" can you do anything about it?

In one suit in New Jersey, Brian Pietrylo filed suit against Houston's Restaurant for, he argues, accessing a MySpace page message forum for employees of the restaurant.  Pietrylo argues that management inappropriately accessed the "invitation only" chat room and spied on employees.  The case has not yet gone to trial, but employers would be wise to watch its progress.

What should employers do?  First, seek information on your own Facebook URL (particularly if you have a corporate Facebook page).  The link for users to get information regarding registering their URLs is: http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=896.  Only those who joined Facebook before June 9, 2009 can register a URL on June 13; everyone else must wait until June 28 (to avoid "name squatting" -  people joining Facebook just for the purpose of grabbing a URL)  

And, perhaps more importantly, consider protecting your trademarked name from use by employees or others.  The link for information about protecting registered trademarks is: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=username_rights

Laura J. Hazen is a Director at Ireland Stapleton Pryor & Pascoe, P.C. In her employment practice, Hazen provides day-to-day advice and coaching to public and private companies on various employment matters. She also has an active litigation practice where she concentrates on representing business in all aspects of complex business and employment disputes. You can contact her by email at lhazen@irelandstapleton.com or by phone at 303-623-2700.

This article is intended as a general discussion and information on the topic covered, and is not to be construed as rendering legal advice. If legal advice is needed, you should consult an attorney. This article may not be reprinted or reproduced in any manner without prior written permission of the author.