AS BUSINESSES increasingly rely on social networking for marketing, networking and publicity they face new and untested issues from the use of such sites.

Take the dispute between Noah Kravitz, an employee of Phonedog in the US, concerning the ownership of followers to a Twitter account.

Mr Kravitz had a Twitter account under the name @Phonedog_Noah that had gathered around 17,000 followers. When he left Phonedog he put the Twitter account in his own name and took that, and the followers, with him. Phonedog alleges that the followers equated to a valuable customer list (worth $2.50 a customer per month) which remains its property. It is now claiming damages for improper use of that list.

Quite how this will play out (and the case is being heard in the US) remains to be seen. Aside from the issues of copyright in the original account what is really in issue is whether there is a value and right to ownership of followers on Twitter. To claim some ownership or protection in the list of followers it would be expected that the list would have to be viewed as confidential or a trade secret. Can that really be the case if the followers are publicly listed on the Twitter website? Also it has been reported that the subject matter of the tweets does not solely relate to Phonedog’s business but covers a range of subjects including liquorice and flu bugs. Therefore there are questions on the alleged value of the followers claimed by Phonedog.

The BBC faced a similar issue when a reporter with an account naming the BBC moved to a different network. The question was did the followers follow the BBC, or the reporter?

The PhoneDog case now puts the issue in a commercial context. While the outcome is yet to be decided, employers should take note. To avoid potentially costly and time consuming disputes, consider implementing policies that clearly define issues of ownership of Twitter and other social networking accounts, and what will happen should an employee running the account moves on. This will ensure you can continue Tweeting regardless of who flies the nest.

TOM COLLINS is associate in the commercial dispute resolution team at law firm Weightmans