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Thursday, May 23, 2013
by Michael Loatman
Under what circumstances can Twitter Inc. take away an account holder's handle, particularly when a company desires the account name? A lawsuit filed earlier this month in an Idaho trial court may help answer that question.
Leonard B. Barshack and his wife, Erin P. Smith, of Ketchum, Idaho, sued Twitter and the Sun Valley Co., seeking a court order requiring the return of the @sunvalley handle.
Sun Valley operates a mountain resort in Idaho and currently uses the @sunvalley account as a means of marketing the company. In a complaint filed May 6, the couple alleges that Sun Valley contacted Twitter to obtain the handle.
They said they were contacted by Twitter in October 2012, and told they violated its rules and therefore would lose the @sunvalley handle. Twitter reportedly told the couple that it received a valid report that their account engaged in non-parody impersonation using the @sunvalley handle.
The couple said in their complaint that they did not impersonate Sun Valley, but instead "periodically tweeted on a variety of topics, including Apple products, MacRumors, weather, a pig roast, and skiing." They said they had been using @sunvalley since approximately April 2010.
They admitted to using a sun as their account image but argued it did not violate Sun Valley's registered mark of "a sun positioned above and to the right of the words, 'Sun Valley.' " Instead, they "simply used a sun."
The couple alleged breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
Twitter did not immediately respond to BNA's request for comment.
Copyright 2013, The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.
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