“You’ll never guess how I succeeded in getting my first name as my Twitter handle. It involved a six-month campaign that included some light Internet stalking, badgering staff at Twitter, $250 and a visit to the patent office.”
He went out and got a Trademark, made a business card, and used Twitter’s own internal process to his advantage. In the domain name world this would be a risky move that could easily turn into a reverse domain name hijacking charge. However in the Twitterverse you aren’t the owner of your Twitter handle, Twitter is, and they do have rules and regulations that can work for or against you in the case that someone has a trademark on the Twitter handle you’re using.
“Anyway, armed with my trademark, I put on my finest suit, combed my hair, ate a couple of breath mints and contacted Twitter’s customer support. Of course, given that Twitter’s support team is a web form, there’s no way for them to know what I was wearing, but damn it, this was a big moment.
I sent them a link to the approved trademark application, and the ball was rolling.”
Source
He went out and got a Trademark, made a business card, and used Twitter’s own internal process to his advantage. In the domain name world this would be a risky move that could easily turn into a reverse domain name hijacking charge. However in the Twitterverse you aren’t the owner of your Twitter handle, Twitter is, and they do have rules and regulations that can work for or against you in the case that someone has a trademark on the Twitter handle you’re using.
“Anyway, armed with my trademark, I put on my finest suit, combed my hair, ate a couple of breath mints and contacted Twitter’s customer support. Of course, given that Twitter’s support team is a web form, there’s no way for them to know what I was wearing, but damn it, this was a big moment.
I sent them a link to the approved trademark application, and the ball was rolling.”
Source
