Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Intellectual Property Law Blogs -> IPKat

Intellectual Property Law

: IPKat

Damsel in distress and loss of Facebook

By Johanna Gibson, David Pearce, Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon.

The IPKat, being an inherently gallant Kat, is always moved by entreaties from damsels in distress. One such damsel has emailed him in some anxiety, seeking his advice. She writes:

"My client's business Facebook page has just been removed. When my client asked why, she was told that her page had been "reported for Trade Mark reasons". The Facebook User Operations message went on to say that, when Facebook receives a proper claim of IP infringement, it promptly removes or disables access to the allegedly infringing content --- and, if they believe that the claim has been made under false pretenses, they contact a lawyer etc to discuss the issue with them.

Facebook refuses to talk to me, even though I'm my client's trade mark representative, since it claims that it will only talk to the people responsible for the page. A request was made to see the "proper claim for IP infringement" in order to address this problem, but none was forthcoming.

I believe that a competitor of my client is responsible.

Have you any ideas as to how to address this issue, since my client is losing a considerable amount of business as a result of this".

The IPKat has already listed some legal and practical steps which, he thinks, might be worth pursuing -- but since he hasn't advised on one of these problems before it struck him that it might be a good idea to invoke the combined brainpower of his readers. The distressed damsel agreed -- so do let us know what you think!

Facebook terms and conditions here
Damsels in distress here
Damsons in distress here
Loss of Face here

Full post as published by IPKat on March 16, 2011 (boomark / email).