• $340k the amount the tech company PhoneDog sued a former employee for after he held onto a Twitter account post-employment
• 17k the number of followers Noah Kravitz built up; after he left the job, he promised to continue tweeting about the company
• $2.50 the cost per follower per month the company sued Kravitz for after the fact; they claimed he was holding onto a customer list source

» A precedent-setting case? For many startups, Twitter followers are starting to become the lingua franca of customer service. So, it’s fascinating to see how cases like this could set an example as things go forward. “This will establish precedent in the online world, as it relates to ownership of social media accounts,” noted NYC intellectual property lawyer Henry J. Cittone. “We’ve actually been waiting to see such a case as many of our clients are concerned about the ownership of social media accounts vis-á-vis their branding.” Which way should the courts decide in this case, anyway?

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