Someone's infringing my trademark on Facebook. What can I do?

I work for a small manufacturer and our product brand is a registered trademark. I recently created a facebook fan page and when I went to set a custom facebook fan page shortcut I found out that the name was already taken. What the heck? How can we file a complaint with Facebook so we can recover our trademark and prevent someone else from using it??

Dave's Answer:

I recently experienced a similar situation when I went to set a custom URL shortcut for the Ask Dave Taylor Fan Page on Facebook, just to find that "askdavetaylor" wasn't available. What the heck? It's a registered trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office and no-one else should be snagging it in Facebook land!

To resolve the situation I didn't register a different URL for my fan page, figuring that they say "it can't be changed once set" but it doesn't say anything about whether or not that includes IP ownership disputes.

I went to the Facebook help area (confusingly, it's the last menu option on Settings) and found myself on a page entitled "What should I do if someone's username infringes my intellectual property or publicity rights?", where it says:

"If you wish to report that someone's username infringes your intellectual property rights, please fill out our username infringement form."

Complete with a link to the username infringement form.

Click on it and you'll find this form:

Quite a lot to fill out, take your time and make a clear case. Not sure of your trademark registration number? Go to the USPTO site and do a quick search. The resultant number they seek looks like this:

You can see it in the middle, labelled "Serial Number". Fill everything in, click "Submit" and you'll get the following message in your inbox:

The next communication I received from Facebook was within 24 hours - even on Christmas day, of all days! - and it was short and sweet:

And that's all there was for me to recover use of my "askdavetaylor" trademark on Facebook, and you can see that by trying this link:

http://www.facebook.com/askdavetaylor

My thanksto Facebook for making this so easy. If you don't get a positive, favorable response, then you'll at least be in a dialog with someone on the Facebook team and can pursue it further, as needed.

Categorized: Facebook Help (Article 9231, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: facebook custom url, facebook username, intellectual property, trademark infringement
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Comments

I understand that trademarks are less clear, since there can be multiple owners of the same "mark", in different industries. For example, "filepro" is a 4GL software database, a set of hanging file folders, and a manicure device. Then there is "Apple", which is owned by a record company and a computer company, and which wasn't a problem until the computer company got into the music business.

Dicslaimer: IANAL.

Posted by: Ken B at January 8, 2010 10:01 AM

Dont get so agitated for crying out loud - I can probably guarantee that your username wasn't "stolen" and that its just an unfortunate coincidence that someone was using a username before you trademarked it. Effectively, you probably STOLE it from them.

Posted by: Mark at January 10, 2010 12:18 PM

Hi Dave,

Thank you so much for posting your facebook infringement issue and resolution. I found it very helpful.
I contacted my lawyer since facebook/ladybugJane has been taken and I own the federal trademark to ladybug Jane.

My lawyer has not dealt with a facebook issue like this before,but thought it wasn't infringement until there was some commerce being done using the name?
Was that the case with your trademark name? Or were they just using the name?
I am filling out the form now and wanted to know if the commerce use makes a difference?

Thank you so so much!! Have a beautiful day:)
Jane

Posted by: jane at June 9, 2010 3:01 PM

I'm not a lawyer, Jane, but there was no commerce happening. I just have a trademark registered for the name so therefore there was no logical reason Facebook wouldn't grant me the name. It wasn't in use, it was reserved by the system, so it's a slightly different situation. Good luck. Report back to us what happens.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at June 9, 2010 3:10 PM

Dave!!!

It all worked out thanks to your detailed instructions. Facebook took care of the situation very quickly.

I now have www.facebook.com/ladybugjane back

Thanks again for your guidance!

Warm regards,
Jane
www.ladybugjane.comth

Posted by: jane at July 17, 2010 4:29 PM

Facebook are a disgrace, what is easy for you to obtain, is impossible for those you stole it from to return.
The other day I had an IT consultant steal my username TheViceroy for a client of theirs "the Viceroy restaurant". When I refused to give it, he used that very option you suggested and STOLE my username. I had used it for over a year and had good reasons for using it, just to have somebody steal it from me without any correspondance from Facebook.

Facebook at least should give the person it originally belongs to appeal !

Posted by: Francis Anderson at January 11, 2011 7:09 AM

Can a company own the name of an area or lake??? I recently received a notice that my facebook url had been taken away. facebook.com/lakeconroe but the owner of a local website lakeconroedotcom claim to facebook that he owns the name lakeconroe so therefore facebook removed the name from me. I own a website called lakeconroehousedotcom could I therefore claim to be the owner of the name as well?

The thing that makes me mas about the whole thing is that this facebook name was a personal profile for me and not a promotional one. The new owner is using it to put links of local businesses that he charges a hefty fee to promote on his main website.

Posted by: David Taylor at March 26, 2011 5:53 PM

Just to clarify, the form asks for the registration number which is different from the serial number.

Posted by: scott at September 9, 2011 9:21 AM

I found this page when I had a similar situation with facebook. I own the trademark for a name, and someone told me another person started a page for her business with the same name. I used the information I found here, which was a huge relief for me. It took a couple weeks, but facebook just sent me an email saying they removed the other page. Thank you so much for this useful information!

Posted by: Joann at October 12, 2011 9:01 AM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!