All trademark owners should be aware of the decision of the enormously popular social networking site Facebook.com to permit its users to create personalized URLs for their Facebook pages. Whereas Facebook has in the past assigned a random numerical string to each particular user, it is now encouraging users to register for a Facebook.com/username type of domain name (presumably to facilitate locating specific users' pages, including via ordinary search engines). Users will be able to begin registering these personalized URLs beginning this Saturday, June 13, at 12:01 AM (EST).

Recognizing that its decision carries with it the potential for trademark abuse, Facebook has implemented two procedures for trademark owners to protect their rights. The first is a simple online form that trademark owners can complete to reserve and prevent others from using their marks within this new Facebook scheme. The form is available here on the Facebook site. It will remain available even as the personalized URL sign-up begins tonight / tomorrow, but possibly only for a short time thereafter. Apparently only registered marks are entitled to “pre-reservation” by their owners.

The second rights-protection procedure is another online form, this one intended to be used to report instances of non-copyright intellectual property infringement. That form is available by clicking here.

While there is a list of answers to Frequently Asked Questions available on its Web site, Facebook is keeping the details of additional protocols related to this issue rather opaque. A range of nuances and rumors are easy to find on the Internet. That said, it seems safe to assume that the best alternative to protect important marks is the pre-reservation form.