Twitter for In-House Counsel

Daniel C. Glazer is Counsel in the Intellectual Property Transactions Group at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.  His practice focuses on intellectual property licensing, software and technology development, transfer and services arrangements, and the intellectual property and technology aspects of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, secured transactions, and other corporate transactions.

Eric P. Rasmussen is an Associate in the Intellectual Property Transactions Group at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.  His practice focuses on counseling companies and not-for-profit organizations on a broad range of intellectual property matters relating to publishing, software, media and entertainment, and the Internet.

Twitter - the ubiquitous social media website that permits registered users to send out messages (or "tweets") of up to 140 characters to "followers" who subscribe to the users' accounts - has become impossible to ignore. With its instantaneous distribution and growing user base (estimated at 60 million users as of January 2010), Twitter is an important part of any online marketing strategy and an excellent way to reach clients, customers, employees, and anyone else with an interest in your company and its business. Although companies ignore Twitter at their own peril, there are important legal considerations of which you should be aware when your company and its employees use Twitter. The following are a few tips for maximizing Twitter's value to your company while protecting its reputation and proprietary rights.

Register and become verified. If your company decides to establish a presence on Twitter, you should immediately register accounts using your company's name and key brands so that only the company can use them. Twitter has experienced a rash of fake accounts created to impersonate famous individuals and companies; registering and using your accounts will reduce the possibility of confusion. In addition, apply for Twitter's "Verified Account" program, whereby Twitter will verify the accounts that actually belong to your company and display a "Verified Account" badge on your company's legitimate Twitter pages.