Twitter's Trademark Infringement Problem
You may have heard that users have registered trademark terms on Twitter, and have also impersonated celebrities or other brand names. This is a consistent and ongoing problem for Twitter. The bigger problem, however, is Twitter's statement with regards to liability and their simple process that is required to be undertaken if, in fact, you want to have a trademark infringer or an impersonator removed from their service.
Well, what are these problems? Twitter first requires that any complaint, whether trademark or otherwise, be submitted from the domain name of the complaining party. So, for example, if you are an attorney that represents a party that owns www.something.com, then the attorney must be granted an email address from www.something.com. This requires the client to provide their attorney with an email address.
Welcome to Trademark Law Radio, a top web resource on issues of trademark infringement, trademark licensing, trademark protection, and trademark registration.
Hello and thank you for listening to Traverse Legal Radio. My name is John Di Giacomo and I am an attorney with Traverse Legal PLC, where I practice in the areas of trademark infringement, copyright infringement, and other internet-based intellectual property matters. Today I'd like to talk to you about Twitter's ongoing trademark infringement problem.
You may have heard that users have registered trademark terms on Twitter, and have also impersonated celebrities or other brand names. This is a consistent and ongoing problem for Twitter. The bigger problem, however, is Twitter's statement with regards to liability and their simple process that is required to be undertaken if, in fact, you want to have a trademark infringer or an impersonator removed from their service.
Well, what are these problems? Twitter first requires that any complaint, whether trademark or otherwise, be submitted from the domain name of the complaining party. So, for example, if you are an attorney that represents a party that owns www.something.com, then the attorney must be granted an email address from www.something.com. This requires the client to provide their attorney with an email address.
Additionally, a second problem that Twitter currently has is that it does not recognize Common Law trademark rights. It only considers a trademark claim if the trademark is in fact registered.
Common Law trademark rights, as opposed to registered trademark rights, are rights that arise out of the use of a mark in commerce. After a longstanding use of a trademark in commerce, a person or a company may obtain trademark rights in a term within the geographical area in which it was used. These trademark rights are no less important or no less valid than those of a registered trademark. In fact, registration simply grants additional benefits to a Common Law user.
In light of these problems that Twitter has, it faces some pretty significant claims of liability and it's likely in the future Twitter will be sued if it does not, in fact, change its policies with regard to trademark infringement and brand impersonation. Why is this?
Well first, Twitter faces a claim of vicarious liability. Vicarious liability requires a finding that the defendant, in this case Twitter, and the infringer, in this case the user of a Twitter handle, exercise joint ownership or control over the infringing product. Since Twitter exercises ownership and control over the infringing product, it could be held vicariously liable because it has the ability to shut down the infringement.
Additionally, Twitter can be held liable for contributory trademark infringement. Contributory trademark infringement occurs where a party continues to supply a product or service to an infringer when it knows that that infringer is engaging in trademark infringement. In this case, again, Twitter continues to provide its service, the social networking service, to individuals that it knows that are infringing upon the third party's trademarks.
Once it has been put on notice, regardless of Twitter's policy, this duty to cease the infringing behavior applies, otherwise Twitter will be held liable for contributory infringement. These are just some of the ways in which Twitter faces some liability with regard to the way that it currently handles trademark infringement problems and brand impersonation problems.
If you have a brand impersonation or a trademark infringement problem with regard to Twitter, contact one of our attorneys today. Again, this is Traverse Legal Radio and I am an attorney, John Di Giacomo. Thank you and have a good day.
You have been listening to Trademark Law Radio. Whether you are facing a trademark infringement, licensing, monitoring or trademark registration issue, we have a trademark attorney ready to answer your questions.
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