News Item

UPDATE - Usernames on Facebook

15 July 2009

Further to our earlier news items of 12 June and 16 June 2009 about the introduction of personalised URLs for Facebook pages, Facebook have now sent out notifications to trade mark owners that registered an interest in the reservation process inviting them to sign up for usernames that include their registered trade marks using the form available at the following link: -

http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=requesting_your_username.

As stated at the top of the form, Facebook cannot guarantee that they will grant the username based on the request. It may be that several different users have filed notice of rights in the same mark.

If you registered your interest and have received such a notification from Facebook you can now request the username and take advantage of the personalised URL.

If you do not want to register the username and use the personalised URL you can reserve the trade mark so it is not generally available to others to use although it may be available to other users who claim rights in the same mark.

As before, if you are concerned about the use of your trade marks in usernames and you have not been able to register the corresponding user name, either because you did not pre-register your interest or because there are competing claims to your trade mark you can still file a complaint with Facebook using the complaint form available at the following link: -

http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=username_infringement.

If you have any further concerns or questions, contact your usual Marks & Clerk attorney or solicitor, or Kirsten Gilbert at kgilbert@marks-clerk.com.