A recent New York Times article covers a lawsuit filed by PhoneDog, a mobile products research and review company, against one of its former employees.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/technology/lawsuit-may-determine-who-owns-a-twitter-account.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=PhoneDog&st=cse
In November 2011, the Chief Judge of the Northern District of California decided that the lawsuit, which generally alleges that the former employee’s Twitter account contains trade secrets (approximately 17,000 followers/PhoneDog customers) that belong to PhoneDog, satisfied the amount in controversy requirement necessary to establish federal jurisdiction. In other words, the court concluded it was at least plausible that the Twitter account in question is worth $75,000. PhoneDog claims the “customer list” is worth $340,000. Stay tuned to see if the court decides that an employee’s work-related social media accounts belong to the employer.
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