Protecting yourself and your company from trademark infringement on Facebook

Facebook is allowing personalized URLs to be added to accounts. On Tuesday, June 9, Facebook, Inc., a social networking website company based in the United States, 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 (facebook.com/yourname).  If you do not secure your name or your company name for your facebook page, someone else might do so causing confusion, trademark infringement and raising the possibility of fraud.

Facebook, Inc. has created an online form for rights 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. through their trademark protection contact form, available at Facebook's trademark rights page.  If you have further questions or concerns, please contact Facebook directly or see its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.

For more information about the growing threat to personal names, trademarks and brands on facebook and twitter read "The Growing Threat to Trademarks and Personal Names: Social Network Cybersquatting."