Trademark Fact Check is an innovative tool for brand owners because with it they have the opportunity to correct any mistakes before providing payment to the Registry. Of course, once their application is submitted, no edits or corrections are allowed and the fee is non-refundable.

The entire press release announcing the launch can be found here. Also, to read more about Trademark Fact Check, visit http://www.tm.biz/tmfactcheck.htm

The article mentions that accounts are considered dormant if not used for six months.  Although they may not be deleted, they are vulnerable to reassignment upon a request.

This can be a simple way for trademark owners to reclaim usernames representing their trademarks.

However, this is also be a warning for trademark owners who have defensively reserved accounts on social networks to protect their trademarks but are not using them. It’s important that the account are kept active, as well.

Read the full article and let us know your thoughts.

TechCrunch’s article “Apple Goes After The Parody @CeoSteveJobs Twitter Account” is a great summary of how a parody Twitter account has been asked to modify its account content.

See the article here.

A New California bill, SB 1411, effective 1/1/11, provides that any person who knowingly and without consent credibly impersonates another actual person through or on an Internet Web site or by other electronic means, as specified, for purposes of harming, intimidating, threatening, or defrauding another person is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Is this essentially trademark protection for individuals? What legislation is coming next?

An interesting read for lawyers, commercial enterprises, artists and trademark owners. Check it out here:  http://davidgryce.wordpress.com/2010/09/30/trademarks-and-social-media/

TM.Biz President, Tom Barrett was a Guest Author for ReadWriteWeb. The article ran today and is generating some conversations about trademark protection on social networks.

YourName(R) – Trademark Protection is Coming to Social Networks

By Tom Barrett / November 19, 2010 9:00 AM/ReadWriteWeb

Oh, baby, baby, it’s a wild, unregulated world. Facebook and LinkedIn, among other online social networks, are vast private communities that have thrived without oversight from any policy-making body. And new social networks are proliferating like bed bugs in a cheap hotel. As a result, trademark protection on social networks is becoming a serious concern for corporations.

Your personal and corporate reputation and popularity on these networks pivot on an identity known as your username. The role of usernames as brand identifiers is following a similar pattern as domain names but without any of the protections that trademarks owners enjoy.

Click here to continue…

To celebrate the launch, we’re waiving fees for Power Tool during the month of November.

Read the rest of our formal announcement here:

The TM.Biz Power Tool can be used to achieve different objectives within the lifecycle of a trademark.  It can be used as a bulk availability search for a list of names of a proposed new brand or to research a company’s entire trademark portfolio. Search terms can be entered in a search box using cut-and-paste or uploaded via a simple text file.

“This is an opportunity for trademark owners to perform a portfolio audit to see how well they are protected on social media and to determine if there is social squatting on their trademarks,” says Tom Barrett, President of TM.Biz. “Most trademark owners are concerned about Facebook and Twitter, but lesser known sites such as Habbo and Qzone with a combined membership of 300 million users is also where they could be exposed. Our new service searches the 500 most popular social media sites and we’re offering Power Tool for free during the month of November.”

The TM.Biz Power Tool works offline, freeing up the user to do other work while it is processed. Once completed, users can review the results in a single report or review the results online using the TM.Biz dashboard. Reports are also available in downloadable text-only formats to allow law firms and resellers to generate private-label reports for their clients.

“With Power Tool, trademark owners can now search hundreds of trademarks in one step, saving them weeks of labor costs for a low price,” says Tom Barrett, President of TM.Biz. “TM.Biz is the only service that allows a one-step trademark search of usernames on the Internet’s top 500 social networks.”

In addition to TM.Biz’s Search capabilities, the TM.Biz’s workflow service also reserves social network usernames, generates in-use reports and offers annual watch subscriptions. Access to the service is restricted to trademark lawyers and brand managers. Eligible users are invited to apply for a free account at http://www.tm.biz.

Protect Your Property

Two new sites protect your trademarks and your wallet.

By Robert J. Ambrogi, Law Technology News

This month, we feature two new sites for lawyers. One helps you protect your clients’ trademarks from being lost within the dense and vast environs of hundreds of social networking sites.  Read more…

TM.Biz aims to take the Wild West of Social Media

BOSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL – BY Lisa van der Pool

The world of social media has been described as the Wild West, especially when it comes to trademark and copyright protections.

Since the popularity of websites like Twitter has exploded, celebrities and companies have been impersonated on social networks and the topic of whether or not tweets can be copyrighted has been raised frequently.

Now, a new Boston-based firm called TM.Biz has launched this week as a way to help companies “secure trademarks and brands” on social networking sites.

Mainly the startup will focus on helping companies secure trademarks of usernames, on such sites as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the many other smaller sites that have popped up recently.

Read more: TM.Biz aims to take the Wild West of Social Media – Boston Business Journal