On Tuesday 9 June social networking site Facebook announced that from Saturday 13 June users of Facebook can apply for personal URLs in the format of www.facebook.com/yourname. Presently URLs for users are distinguished by random numbers. Initially only existing users of Facebook are eligible for these URLs.
While this may be viewed as a great opportunity for those seeking a bit of personal publicity it will be viewed by trade mark and brand owners with concern in light of domain name squatting issues that have arisen in recent times. This new Facebook URL registration system merely provides another opportunity for those wanting to effectively domain name squat by registering a brand owner’s mark without permission.
Facebook has anticipated this issue and announced measures to protect and correct unauthorised use of trade marks and brand names. To allow a trade mark or brand owner to record its rights Facebook has set up a
form. This form requests trade mark registration numbers from rights owners but does not state if this can be an application number for a trade mark or if it must be a registration number. It also does not state if the owner of an unregistered brand or trade mark can apply.
We would encourage any trade mark owner concerned about this to use this form as soon as possible, given the URLs go live Saturday 13 June. More information is available
here.
If you should subsequently note that an unauthorised third party has registered your trade mark as a personal URL on Facebook please contact us as Facebook also has in place a system for dealing with infringing users.