Twitter's New Trademark Guidelines: Why Trademark Guidelines are Important

Hello Everyone:

Recently, Twitter revealed its new trademark guidelines regarding the proper use of the Twitter name and trademarks.

Some key terms of the new trademark guidelines are as follows:

1. When users promote their own Twitter accounts, they need to use the proper Twitter logo and ensure the letter "T" in Twitter is capitalized.

2. When mentioning Twitter on TV or any other public forum, users should refer to the company as Twitter and messages as Tweets. Also unless expressly given permission to do so, do not imply an endorsement or relationship with Twitter.

3. Users must not ever manipulate or change the Twitter logo. Furthermore, ensure the Twitter logo is not next to your logo to imply an association.

4. When developing Twitter applications, developers are now forbidden to use Twitter or Tweet in the name of the app.

5. Developers are also forbidden from copying the look and feel of the Twitter website in developing applications and websites.

Twitter's new trademark guidelines were necessary in order for Twitter to protect and manage its brand. Remember a trademark owner can lose trademark rights if the trademark is not controlled and managed. Specifically, a trademark owners has to:

1. Ensure the mark does not become generic (a common name for the goods or services and ceases to function as a source for the goods);

2. Ensure trademark infringers are prosecuted effectively and swiftly. A trademark owner that allows anyone to use their trademark without prosecuting infringers, has a weak trademark. A weak trademark is one that is no longer considered unique to the trademark owner's product or service.

Trademark Guidelines Assist in Brand Management

Trademark guidelines are first steps in alerting the public to the proper use of a company's trademarks and ultimately brand. They ensure the trademark is used properly; forbids impermissable uses or as Twitter states "the lawyers get involved"; and clearly gives direction as to when express permission or a license is needed for use.

Trademark Guidelines are especially important if your brand is entering a partnership with another brand or if your brand is used by multitudes of people.

Does your brand have trademark guidelines in place?

Twitter "Moldy Apartment" Libel Lawsuit

Hello Everyone!

I have been very busy traveling and speaking on protecting IP assets and legal issues in new media. This week I wrote an article on the Twitter "Moldy Apartment" lawsuit. If you have not heard, a Twitter user stated on Twitter that a management company had moldy apartments. The management company sued for libel and of course this story received massive attention. The issue here is whether the statement was factual or false. Read my take on this lawsuit here. If you like please join the discussion.

Have a great day!

Defamation and Social Media

Hello!

Defamation is becoming a huge issue on social media sites such as Blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. Recently there have been some notable cases involving defamation litigation. Specifically, Courtney Love is being sued for making an alleged defamatory "tweet" about a famous designer.

What is a defamatory statement? The law defines defamation as spoken or written words that are false and or misleading that gives the defamed a negative image and or hurts their reputation. The defamatory statement must be made to someone other than the person subject to the defamation. The law also differentiates between written and oral defamatory statements. Written statements are called libel and oral statements are slander.

Who is liable for libel statements made on blogs or social networks? Are owners of these sites liable for defamatory statements made by users of their sites? Or is the person who made the defaming statement solely liable?

Under the Communications Decency Act, an owner of a social networking site is not liable for the defamatory statements made about another on their site unless the site owner actively engages in the gathering of information from the user that leads to the defamatory statement. An example of this type of behavior is a blog owner soliciting comments from users on whether they dislike Celebrity X and why? The comments leads to defamatory statements about the celebrity and the blog owner supports, encourages, and endorses the libel statements.

Of course, anyone who makes a defamatory statement about another on any social network is personally liable for his or her statements.

How can owners of social networking sites and users of these sites protect themselves from defamation liability?

Owners should discourage and immediately remove potentially defamatory or libel statements from their sites. Owners should never enter into any dialogue with a user concerning a person's reputation. In addition, including a disclaimer or statement regarding your removal of any defamatory statements on your site, may potentially discourage users from engaging in such behavior. Plus it puts the public on notice that you do not endorse defamatory conduct.

Users of social networking sites should avoid personal opinions or negative comments that are not 100% factual and or statements that may harm a person's image or reputation. The best advice I have ever received is "if you don't have anything positive to say, then don't say nothing at all." One negative comment could cost you tons of money and heartache.

I welcome your thoughts!