Who Owns Your Friends?: Phonedog v. Kravitz and Business Claims of Trade Secret in Social Media Information

Abstract

Increasingly businesses are making use of social media including requiring employees to create and maintain social media profiles. What happens when an employee in charge of a social media profile leaves the company? To whom does that profile, and the friends or followers connected to that account, belong? This paper explores the emerging use of trade secret law by businesses claiming ownership social media profile information.

Keywords: social media, trade secret, information, ownership, intellectual property, employment law