Luca then gave the audience a lesson in how to open an official corporate Facebook page, giving examples of Gucci and Campari as brands that have secured a Facebook presence in order to gain real-time information concerning consumer behaviour and to promote their own products and events. The element of social networking is somewhat limited in this case, since contributions to pages can be limited to Facebook group members.

The Facebook usename policy was then discussed, since trade mark owners can register their marks as usernames and thus block their use to other trade mark users (this can cause ill feeling where the same word is used as a trade mark by different businesses for different goods/services in different jurisd

ictions). Facebook then caused anxiety by saying that unused usernames would be allocated to third parties if there was no active Facebook page which corresponded to them.  Continuing with Facebook, Luca then reviewed its privacy policy and the operation of privacy settings, as well as its intellectual property rights infringement policy.

In respect of infringing activities on social networking sites, the main problem facing brand owners isn't one of seeking legal relief or getting a site or page closed down -- it's quantifying the damage that can be inflicted by bad publicity among consumers and the general public if the brand owner looks as though it is attempting to curtail freedom of speech.  A case study concerning Ferrari was discussed, in which tackling  an unwanted fan-site through tact and diplomacy brought the company's problem to a mutually beneficial conclusion.