McAfee & Taft intellectual property attorney Ryan Lobato was featured in The Oklahoman discussing the new Facebook policy that allows members to personalize their URLs by adding customer usernames, which has caused concern that users may choose company trademarks as usernames.
"The improper use of trademarks by fans or others on the Internet and elswhere has been a problem for years," Lobato told The Oklahoman. "When a trademark owned by another party is used to make a profit, it may amount to a practice knows as 'cybersquatting,' which can prevent the owner from using the trademark, diminish brand equity of the trademark, and allow the cybersquatter to unfairly reap the benefits of the goodwill associated with the mark."
Lobato told The Oklahoman that rights holders can protest unauthorized uses of their trademarks, copyrighted material and other intellectual proprety to Facebook by filing an online IP infringement complaint by way of a form available on Facebook's website.
"So far, Facebook has been remarkably proactive and has provided a significant amount of protection for intellectual property rights," Lobato said.
Lobato first brought attention to this issue in the McAfee & Taft Intellectual Property Law Alert published June 11, 2009, which was subsequently referenced by other media outlets, websites and social media.