How Someone Ripped off Our Twitter Name and We Fought Back
You’ve probably read our StartupNation advice about how to leverage the value of social media to benefit your business. (You can listen to a first and second podcast on this subject, too.)
But a word of warning: What you may not know–and should be prepared to overcome–is that just like there are squatters on website domain names, there are squatters on Twitter and Facebook nicknames, too.
In fact, such a scenario played out here at StartupNation back in April (and was concluded in that timeframe) when we realized that not only was someone squatting on our name on Twitter, but that person was periodically linking to content at our site and acting as if he was us. The situation became ever more serious as he built followers who thought they were getting Tweets from StartupNation when it was really a poser who had his own agenda to develop his own following using our name, content, branding in the market, etc.
It was potentially a very dangerous position for our brand to be in - we had lost control of our own message.
So here’s what I did (and if you run into this situation, you might use the same steps):
- I immediately sent him a direct message on Twitter asking who he was;
- I also sent direct messages to people who had begun following the poser, explaining that he’s not the real deal and to stay tuned for the real StartupNation Tweets that would begin as soon as the situation was rectified;
- Upon receiving the poser’s Twitter response, I asked for his email address (to get past the character length limitations of Twitter);
- I told him in an email that he was causing confusion in the marketplace by using our name and Tweeting our content. I asked him to stop immediately and that we take over the StartupNation twitter name immediately;
- Here’s what he wrote back to me, clearly trying to “gently” extort StartupNation for money when in fact he was infringing on our trademarked name:
Hello,My name is Robert G[xxxxxx] and I’m a 23 year old student. I’ve been a huge fan of Startupnation ever since it started, and to tell you the truth I honor the work you do and see you as a role model for young entrepreneurs such as myself. I was very surprised not to see Startupnation on twitter when I first started, so I decided to take the matter into my own hand and create the account.I’ve been promoting a positive company image ever since.I understand that legal procedures to take over the account can be lengthy, costly, time consuming and down right ugly.
To speed the process up I am proposing an account take over.I am asking for $15,000 to be transferred into my PayPal account (r[xxxxxxxx]@gmail.com) at which point I will assign “startupnation” twitter user name to an email account of your choice. This matter can be taken care of within minutes.
Each day that goes by can result in hundreds of followers. Twitter is a very powerful asset that will help your company communicate with current customers and help gain new ones.One thing I want you to understand is that I am looking to rip anyone off, I am simply looking for funds to start my own business. Venture Capitalists investments are at a 12 year low right now, and you can only image how hard it is to acquire outside investments in this economy.Feel free to email me with your decision.
Sincerely,Robert G[xxxxxxx]
- As soon as I received this, I realized I was dealing with someone who didn’t know (or care?) that he had fallen on the wrong side of trademark law. Whether his intentions were good or malicious, this was not his call to make and he certainly chose a foolish path to try to get paid for the name. So, I contacted Twitter directly. I used the link found on this Terms of Service page at Twitter;
- Twitter responded within 48 hours asking for confirmation that StartupNation owned the trademark for use of our name, which I produced for them by visiting www.uspto.gov, searching for our Trademark, and sending them the direct link confirming assignment to us;
- Within days, Twitter took action. They booted the poser and returned the rights to use “StartupNation” on Twitter to us.
Ever since then (April of 2009), we’ve been posting regularly and building our following.
You can check us out at StartupNation on Twitter. And you can be confident that it’s the “real McCoy”.
And whether or not you want to follow us on Twitter, hopefully this chronology of how somone tried to rip off our name and how we fought back (and you can, too) will be helpful in your use of Twitter.
Onward!
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:12 am
Rich,
Wow. Thank you for the post. When I first read the headline I thought “Why would anyone do that?” Duh. Money. You’ve shown how important it is to monitor your company name on the internet and to trademark your company name as well.
I’m headed over to twitter now to follow the real StartupNation.
Tracy
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:48 am
This post completely opened my eyes for twitter…thanks a lot.
August 3rd, 2009 at 10:19 am
Glad this was helpful - apparently there’s a Twitter term for what the guy tried to do - “Twitterjacking”.
They’ve got a name for everything!
August 4th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
What an interesting story! I think any business is smart to at least snatch up the rights to their twitter name even if they are not ready to jump in. I have already jumped in with both feet : )
August 5th, 2009 at 9:15 am
This definitely opened my eyes and made me realize how important it is to trademark a company’s name. If the trademark is not there, will Twitter take any actions?
August 5th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Wayne, my hunch is that Twitter would not take action or at least be very reluctant to take action b/c there wouldn’t be a legal basis for it. I am sure they want to avoid “grey area” situations.
August 11th, 2009 at 10:29 am
WOW! That stinks that someone would sink that low. Good thing you are so nice…..I could see this guy as fish food!
August 11th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Rich - thanks for sharing this information!
An interesting point to add to all this…. Unless the twitterjacker is using the name and representing themselves as your business, Twitter won’t do anything to help you get your brand name back — even if it is trademarked. If someone is squatting on your name and doing nothing with it, your only recourse is steps 1-4.
Here is how Twitter responded on this very subject:
“Trademark infringement takes place when brand confusion results due to logo, content and/or user name; if there is no infringement, Twitter is not obligated to remove an account or release a user name (For example, if your trademarked name is in use by someone else in a way that has nothing to do with the company, and does not cause brand confusion, there is no infringement.)
* Infringing accounts set up to deliberately mislead people will be permanently suspended for Terms of Service violations.
* Twitter will act upon legitimate complaints from the trademark owner or the legal party authorized to act on their behalf.
* User name squatting does not constitute trademark violation if there is no content, no logo, no updates, etc. Name squatting accounts will not be removed under the guide of trademark violation.”
August 11th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Thanks for sharing that very helpful advice. As one of the women who coined the catchy word “Mompreneurs(R),” and as co-owner of the trademark to it, I agree that it’s absolutely essential for biz owners to protect their brands. We have had similar problems, and I know that many brand/trademark owners, will benefit from your advice.
August 11th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Apparently this young man does not understand Karma or the Laws of Attraction. The sad part is this individual is only 23 yrs old. He is just getting started with his “white collar crime behavior.”
Good for you, Startupnation for taking a stance in this matter.
LB
August 11th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
This is not unique to Twitter it happens all over the internet. Someone started a Google blogspot blog using our name. That was bad enough but they also used our content. I had to file a DMCA takedown notice. I have filed these on other content thieves. I was comprised by Google’s slow response but the content was removed. However they still allowed the trademark infringement.
This can happen on any social media platform. I started setting up accounts that I will likely never use on hundreds of social media sites. It is a big hassle but what’s a person going to do. Your site could be used in the same manner!
August 11th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Almost sounds like that was a form letter and this person had possibly pulled it off before! Its good that Twitter took up good to eliminate twitter squatting.
August 12th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Thanks Rich — for pointing this out. It raises an interesting aspect of brand-building that entrepreneurs often don’t focus on. That’s the need to “monitor” your brand. From a trademark law perspective, it’s not enough just to spend the time (and money) launching the brand. You also have to make sure that other people don’t use it improperly. Business owners should develop a trademark/brand monitoring system so that they can nip these problems in the bud.
This guy’s response was also ironic in his “Freudian slip”. He wrote that “…understand is that I am looking to rip anyone off, I am simply looking for funds….” He probably meant to write “I am NOT looking to rip anyone off.” As they say, “the Devil will out.”
August 12th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Nina,
this little event i blogged about is part of something much bigger that’s happening around us. this is a new era where power is to the people. the advent of social networking has shifted the “power” such that “i” (representing the brand) no longer have control of my brand. “they” (representing people on the net) do. and business owners must be incredibly diligent/vigilant to “monitor,” as you say, and even more, “manage” how the world handles your brand. the case above was extreme and involved foul play, but a business’s brand can be manipulated in so many subtle ways, too, that aren’t foul play at all but still can impact the brand and how people perceive it…
August 12th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Thanks Rich. That’s a great example of what could happen and one way to go about resolving it, and without legal fees. This will continue to happen as new Internet markets are created (Twitter just being the most recent hot one), making Internet “properties” difficult to grab by the actual trademark owners.
Facebook handled this a month or so ago when they began allowing people to grab legible names/terms for their Facebook URLs. They allowed trademark holders to apply for (and justify) their names, rather than just turning it all loose and letting squatters reign. I was able to request my trademark for my “fan” page, showing Facebook the proof that I had indeed filed for my trademark with the USPTO.
I think the lesson for us all is to get the trademarks via uspto.gov, and then hope that the owners of the various Internet markets will respect those trademarks.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Thanks for sharing.
Another issue is impersonation of your brand & identity on Twitter and other social networking sites. To address this issue, Twitter recently released a service called VerifiedAccount to prevent identity confusion. This service is only available to well-know personalities - not available to businesses and individuals. This solution can only be used within Twitter to help users identify the REAL from FAKE accounts.
There’s a new solution that’s available to address this issue for any and all social networking site to help identity the individual, professional, businesses and their employees, and non-profit organizations. Find out more about this solution at http://www.validize.com.
August 13th, 2009 at 9:06 am
It takes all types. My only regret is that there was no easy way to out this guy and see who else he has done this to. It can only make you wonder how many bases you have to cover to protect your brand that you have worked hard to develop. Thank God there was still some common sense left in the market place. I would have been tempted to do it old school!
August 13th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Tiffan is correct with how the social networks monitor this issue. Someone is using my name as their username on Youtube; however, they have not posted any content or used it for anything at all yet. As such it appears that at the moment I have no legal recourse.
August 16th, 2009 at 6:12 am
Thank you very much. This is a very big help. As a new Internet Marketer and owned a website, I immediately realized how important a trade mark is. Thanks.
August 18th, 2009 at 8:46 am
I concur with Tiffan and Dave, that it makes little difference to Twitter et.al. if you’ve trademarked your name (which is not the case with domain name registrars). If someone is using your trademarked name as their twitter name or Facebook vanity page/profile name, as long as they’re not trying to pose as you, Twitter etc. won’t do a thing. I sent in my USTPO stuff to Twitter too, and pestered them about seeing the case through, but they said the woman has a right to use my fairly unusual, distinctive, business trademarked name as her own, since she wasn’t trying to intimate that she worked for my company. I sent the correspondence to my trademark attorney who concurred w/Twitter … said that unfortunately, that was the state of things, legally.
So all you can do is jump on those social media sites and claim your name, even if you don’t plan on being active there.
September 5th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I just went through a similar thing with Twitter, for my company - Planet Protect, they won’t do a thing even though I own the trademarked name. I got the exact same form letter response as a previous post presented. My attorney is reviewing the matter. My next step is to sue the individual, perhaps personal litigation is the only recourse.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
What can twitter do for you?
September 13th, 2009 at 10:45 am
i really love to use Twitter. i was addicted to Blogging before the birth of Twitter. Now i am addicted to Twitter.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
i just love Twittering compared to blogging. i was a blog addict and now i am a Twitter addict.
January 7th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
[...] common. But feel free to leave your social media presence up to your customers. It’s never hurt anyone [...]
February 21st, 2010 at 12:49 am
i want to setup an Online Business with a credit card processor and i am still researching about it. my current online business is just selling handbags and some stuffs on e-bay.
February 21st, 2010 at 11:18 am
Janey,
we recommend you utilize a service we have experience with:
http://www.intelli-collect.com/StartupNation-Affiliate.html
additionally, you can learn about accepting credit cards by reading this article:
http://www.startupnation.com/series/122/9244/credit-cards-welcome.htm
March 28th, 2010 at 5:54 am
Twitter is really a good way in keeping yourself updated with the day to day activities of your friends and families members. I update my Twitter and personal blog daily.
July 3rd, 2010 at 3:47 pm
a good way to promote a site is via Social media like Facebook and Friendster.:*: