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German Merck Demands Back Facebook Page

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Merck & CoMerck KGaA, the German based drug manufacturer has threatened Facebook Inc. with legal actions after it lost its page on the social networking website to rival Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK) in U.S.

According to a filing in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, the German based Merck said that it will take legal action against the evident takeover of its page on the social networking site at www.facebook/merck by Merck & Co, a similarly named but dissimilar competitor.

A spokesman for Merck KGaA on Thursday said that the drug maker is seeking explanation about how their URL was taken over by Merck & Co, in the U.S. and they are surprised why it happened. However, representatives for Merck & Co and Facebook said that they are looking into the issue.


The increasing importance of social networks as a medium for marketing is reflected by this filing, with companies seeking legal actions to safeguard their apparent rights on these networking sites.  Germany’s Merck said in the filing, because the social networking site is an essential marketing tool, the page is of great importance, and misappropriation is hurting the company.

German Drug maker initiated action against Facebook because it did not provide details about the issue. Facebook has not been cooperative in restoring the page and also appeared non responsive in several communications made on this regard or vague in dealing with KGaA, the filing added.

Germany’s Merck said that it had entered into an agreement with Facebook in March 2010 for the exclusive use of a web page on the social networking site. Limited administrative rights of the web page were assigned to some people like its employees and its external service provider for registering social media and domain names, said Merck.

However, in October this year they found that the administrative rights of the web page were no longer theirs and the web page on the network had contents created and linked to its rival Merck & Co, in the United States. Merck KGaA said in the filing that it seeks pre action disclosure from the web page vendor to determine the nature of misconduct, to identify the appropriate defendants and to frame pleadings.

Merck & Co was established in 1891, however the two companies were separated under the treaty of Versailles, as part of Germany’s reparations following World War I. the two drug makers are no longer linked to each other, but have the name Merck in common.

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edliston
Post Written By: Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.


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Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing.

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