Engage: trademark protection in social media

Produced for World Trademark Review internet issue shown on 4 November 2009 and reproduced with the editors kind permission.

Lawyers Timothy Pinto

"What are you doing?" This is the question that social networking website Twitter poses to each of its users. Over 20% of answers involve brands - around 600,000 per day. "People are using tweets to express their reaction, both positive and negative, as they engage with products and services," confirms Jim Jansen, associate professor at Penn State University and author of the study that reveals this staggering statistic. "Tweets are about as close as one can get to the customer."