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Tech Site Sues Ex-Employee, Claiming Rights To His Twitter Account

Posted by timothy on from the depends-what-the-meaning-of-his-is dept.

nonprofiteer writes "Noah Kravitz worked as a mobile phone reviewer for a tech website called Phonedog for four and a half years. While there, he started a Twitter account (of his own volition) with the handle @PhoneDog_Noah to tweet his stories and videos for the site as well as personal stuff about sports, food, music, etc. When he left Phonedog, he had approximately 17,000 followers and changed his Twitter handle to @noahkravitz. This summer, Phonedog started barking that it wanted the Twitter account back, and sued Kravitz, valuing the account at $340,000 (!), or $2.50 per follower per month. Kravitz claims the Twitter account was his own property. A California judge ruled that the case can proceed and theoretically go to trial. Meanwhile, Kravitz continues to tweet."

12 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It was part of his job by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It doesn't sound like the company asked him to do it.

    Sounds more like he setup a personal account and was just giving his own articles some free PR.

    Putting PhoneDog in the username is pretty stupid though and will definitely hurt his case.

  2. Re:It was part of his job by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    RTFA: it was not part of his job. He removed the name of the company from the handle when he left. That's all there is to it.

  3. Don't ever mix personal and employer projects by Fujisawa+Sensei · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't ever mix personal and employer projects, ever.

    Especially don't use your employer's name or trademarks in your personal projects.

    Hell in some states, depending on your terms of employment, even your personal projects can be seized by the company.

    --
    If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
  4. Oh, the irony ... by Infernal+Device · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If they win, it may damage their Twitter reputation more than just leaving it alone.

    17,000 followers can spam a Twitter account pretty heavily.

    --
    "My God...it's full of trolls!"
    1. Re:Oh, the irony ... by multiben · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes I agree completely. PR is a funny beast and someone at PhoneDog clearly doesn't understand that. People in general don't like seeing companies take petty action against employees (whether rightly or not). The damage they do to their brand will likely outweigh the value of the Twitter account they are trying to get their hands on. The longer this goes on, the worse the damage. If they weren't able to do this out of court amicably then they should have dropped it and gone on.

  5. Easy solution by rs1n · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All he needs to do is create a new account and tweet about the issue. "I am moving to a new twitter handle nsert new handle here so please update accordingly if you would like to follow me after this handle is returned to Phonedog" Problem solved

  6. Re:It was part of his job by CmdrPony · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It doesn't matter if he was specifically asked to do so. He used the company's resources and time to make it, used company's name as part of his handle and it definitely was something directly linked to Phonedog. If you do something at your work time, it usually does belong to the company. It's so with your personal projects done at work time too. Hell, in some places your personal projects done outside your work time belong to your employer too.

  7. Re:It was part of his job by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The company never took any responsibility or control over the account. He made a personal account and tweeted what he felt like, which was sometimes work related. The people weren't signing up to follow the company, they were signing up to follow him.

    "If person would wanted to have own personal twitter, you should..."
    If a company wants an official twitter, then they can make one instead of claiming a personal one that they never managed and was only tangentially related to their business.

  8. Re:It was part of his job by Hentes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    By that logic a company could claim the car you use to get to work, or your laptop you use in your workplace. He didn't develop anything.

  9. Twitter Terms of Service by Ken+D · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Twitter clearly indicates in their ToS that the service can only be used if you can enter a binding contractual relationship with Twitter.

    Unless the company gave him the ability to enter a contract with Twitter on the company's behalf, then the account is either in violation of the ToS, or it is personal.

    Twitter gives the company various options for dealing with an account that infringes their marks.

    1. Re:Twitter Terms of Service by Narcocide · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If only I had mod points. Why does nobody read the terms of service? All these "corporate" Twitter/Facebook/whatever accounts that these corporations think they own are in *complete* violation of the terms of service of those very sites. The only way this company could keep the account legally in the first place is if they also keep the employee who goes with it.

  10. Re:It was part of his job by mysidia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and if its related to your job but done out side of work time they own it too

    No... they own copyright to content you produce related to your job, as "work for hire". They don't own assets you create outside of work that you use in a manner related to your job.

    For example... if your job entails visiting clients; your company doesn't suddenly own your personal car, when you use it one day to drive to a client's office. If you use your personal e-mail account to contact a prospect that you happen to be friends with, or you provide your e-mail address or personal phone number as contact details for a client, and you wind up signing them up... your company doesn't suddenly own your e-mail account or your home phone number.

    They own the work that you provided to them, for example, the sale. They don't own personal property leveraged to do so.

    So... they could own the copyright to all the twitter posts, but it's still your account. What they could do is demand you take down all the twitter posts from your account that contain their intellectual property.

    Also.... you don't own the Twitter account in the first place, actually, Twitter owns it their ToS says so: All right, title, and interest in and to the Services (excluding Content provided by users) are and will remain the exclusive property of Twitter and its licensors..