Facebook announced last week the availability of a personalized Facebook URLs for individual profiles, e.g., www.facebook.com/[your name].
As discussed in our June 12 Client Alert, “Just When You Thought You Were Too Old for Facebook,” this latest offering from Facebook raises serious issues—issues that are typically encountered when technology collides with traditional intellectual property laws intended to protect trademarks and brand names.
Much like the confusion and abuse that proliferated when cybersquatting became rampant over the ownership and administration of domain names, we now have social networks and service providers allowing users to generate content and offering customized http://www.thecompany.com/YOURNAMEHERE URLs within their own domains in a digital and borderless world.
Significantly, the promotional momentum created by Facebook’s offer has caused every astute brand and trademark owner to ponder whether they should be in a rush to register their personalized URL on Facebook, or let it ride and deal with potential infringements when—and if—they occur!
While it can be stimulating to consider whether the intellectual property laws have kept up with the Internet, you need practical guidance and insightful approaches to these problems today. The Media & Entertainment Industry Team and the Advertising Technology & Media Law Group at Reed Smith have put together a teleseminar to help you understand the issues, formulate an approach, and make informed decisions. Join us for this informative one-hour teleseminar on Tuesday, June 23 at 12 p.m. EDT with partners Doug Wood and Joe Rosenbaum.
UPDATE: To view the seminar’s PowerPoint presentation, please click here.