• 14
  • November
    2011

Social media is increasingly a large part of today's business world. This is especially true for professionals who work in contact-based fields such as recruiting, sales, public relations and consulting. Many of these employees rely on social media sites such as LinkedIn not only to advance their personal careers, but also to make contact with potential clients and customers.

This raises an important, but yet unanswered, question - who owns an employee's business-related social media contacts? If ownership is not spelled out in the employment agreement, the confusion around this issue can lead to expensive litigation.

When Can Disputes Arise?

Ownership disputes generally arise when an employee leaves his or her job to start a new business. The former employee may reach out to social media contacts in an attempt to build new customer or client relationships. However, many employers claim that contacts created during the course of employment actually belong to the company and therefore can't be used by a departing employee.

This issue has yet to be conclusively resolved in American courts. However, one British court recently ruled that social-media contacts belong to the employer if those contacts are customers, employees or vendors with whom the former employee did business.

That case involved a former employee of a consulting firm who left to start his own consulting business. In the course of starting his new company, the former employee reached out to LinkedIn contacts from his old job. He has now been ordered by the court to relinquish all of his LinkedIn contacts to his old employer, along with evidence showing that none of them became clients of his new firm.

How Can Departing Employees Protect Themselves?

Experts suggest that employees leaving to start their own companies should be proactive in addressing social media issues with their former employers. If contact usage is not spelled out in a social media policy or non-compete, non-solicitation and non-disclosure agreement, departing employees should discuss the use of social media contacts with their former boss or human resources department.

Although it may be an uncomfortable discussion, addressing social media issues head-on will help former employees avoid costly and potentially damaging litigation.

Source: Forbes, "Who Owns Your LinkedIn Contacts?" David Coursey, Nov. 3, 2011.