Stephen Riden is featured in a November 14, 2011, Forbes story about a lawsuit filed by a company against its former employee for using a Twitter account after leaving the company. The article is written by Forbes staff writer, Kashmir Hill.
In the lawsuit, the company, Phonedog, claims that its former employee, Noah Kravitz, established a Twitter account at the company’s request, and then used that account to promote the company’s services.
When the employee left, the Twitter account went with him. So the company sued and is seeking damages for the alleged theft of its trade secrets, i.e., the Twitter account and its followers.
Stephen Riden, a partner at Beck Reed Riden LLP, who specializes in employment law, says the case is ‘murky,’ in part because Kravitz included ‘Phonedog’ in his Twitter handle. ‘Employers usually address this in their employee manuals — whether an employee can include their name or brand in social networking accounts, and whether accounts are being set up for the company or the employee,’ says Riden. ‘It’s much cheaper to spell this out ahead of time than to litigate it after the fact.’
Click here to read more about the intersection of social media and employment disputes.
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