Protecting Your Trademark on Facebook
Client Alert | 1 min read | 06.11.09
Facebook®, the popular social networking system, has announced that starting at 12:01 a.m. (EDT) on Saturday, June 13, 2009, its users will be allowed to create personalized URLs. (see http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=90316352130). This raises the possibility that some Facebook users may try to incorporate third party trademarks as part of their new URLs.
In anticipation of this possibility, Facebook has established an online form to be used by trademark owners interested in protecting their trademarks from being registered as usernames. (Click here: Facebook - Preventing the Registration of a Username). The online form is simple and, barring technical complications, should be easy to use. It is unknown as to how effective this system will turn out to be but there may be be little downside to the process. Unfortunately, Facebook has given minimal advance notice of this new development and trademark owners who wish to take full advantage of this system should consider submitting the online form prior to the commencement of the new URL registration program on Saturday June 13.
Insights
Client Alert | 3 min read | 06.12.26
DOJ Guidance Backs Away From Disparate Impact Liability
On June 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a formal opinion concluding that the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission’s (EEOC) existing interpretations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) disparate-impact liability, including the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP), are unconstitutional. According to the opinion, EEOC’s prior interpretations contemplate liability based on disproportionately adverse effects alone, without regard to an employer’s likely intent, rather than treating disparate impact as an evidentiary mechanism to “smoke out” intentional discrimination. DOJ found that this approach functions as a “qualified racial-proportionality mandate” that places “a racial thumb on the scales, often requiring employers to evaluate the racial outcomes of their policies, and to make decisions based on (because of) those racial outcomes.” The opinion fulfills one mandate of Executive Order 14281, which rejected disparate-impact liability insofar as it “creates a near insurmountable presumption that unlawful discrimination exists wherever there are any differences in outcomes among different [demographic groups].”
Client Alert | 4 min read | 06.12.26
Auto Dealers: The FTC Is Back in the Driver’s Seat — Warning Letters Signal Renewed Federal Scrutiny
Client Alert | 13 min read | 06.12.26
Client Alert | 4 min read | 06.12.26
