With the introduction of personalised usernames on Facebook, it seemed inevitable the issue of ‘cybersquatting’ would come up.
Facebook has now introduced a number of strategies to assist trade mark owners in protecting their registered trade marks from cybersquatters. These initiatives have been put in place to ensure that the registration of personalised URLs is not misused by current Facebook members who may set up a personal URL address on Facebook which features a third parties trade mark. These initiatives include:
- Facebook will not permit the use of generic terms (such as ‘football’, ‘chocolate’ or ‘flowers’) to be used in any personalisation.
- Personal URLs will not be transferable, meaning Facebook users cannot register and then sell a personalised URL back to the trade mark owner.
- Owners of registered trade marks will be able to register their trade marks with Facebook in order to prevent squatting.
Facebook has also introduced a formal procedure in order to deal with complaints made by trade mark owners where a Facebook user registers a personal URL address which features a trade mark similar to theirs.
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