PR Firm Accused Of Setting Up Fake Twitter Account Of Competing Firm

from the really? dept

We’ve all heard about the various fake accounts on Twitter, and even Tony La Russa’s misguided lawsuit over a user who put up a fake profile. However, in what appears to be a slightly more serious case of “brandjacking” on Twitter, the Citizen Media Law Project alerts us to a lawsuit involving two PR firms, with one accused of hijacking the identity of the other on Twitter. While it’s a bit amusing that the PR firm who was hijacked claims its expertise is in brand management and yet didn’t notice that someone else was using its brand on Twitter for two months, the fact that the IP address of whoever signed up for the account came from a competing PR firm suggests questionable intent, and certainly has the potential to be a real trademark issue.

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Companies: twitter

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Comments on “PR Firm Accused Of Setting Up Fake Twitter Account Of Competing Firm”

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11 Comments
Mike Masnick (profile) says:

Re: One question

Who do you(mike) support on this issue and what do you think THINK the verdict should be?

From the facts given, it sure looks like a classic trademark infringement situation (i.e., people would be confused). But I didn’t think that part was all that interesting, which is why I didn’t discuss it. I just found it interesting that a company would mimic a competitor on Twitter.

Not sure what the other anon person is complaining about. I’ve never been shy about stating my opinions.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: One question

You are only shy about stating your absolute position on things. Slippery as always.

“From the facts given, it sure looks like a classic trademark infringement situation (i.e., people would be confused). But I didn’t think that part was all that interesting, which is why I didn’t discuss it. I just found it interesting that a company would mimic a competitor on Twitter.”

Even at that, you can’t say anything definte, you just get slippery and deflect. Congrats.

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