Twitter announcement on banning the free promotion of third party social media platforms: the importance of being in control of one’s online presence

In December 2022, shortly after Elon Musk's takeover, Twitter announced a ban on the 'free promotion' of rival social platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and others — before quickly withdrawing the policy. The episode is a parable about dependence: platform rules are private rules, which can change overnight and against users' interests. Notably, the short-lived policy prohibited promoting an Instagram page but not linking to one's own website. Hence the article's practical lesson, supported by France's 2021 digital barometer (about 66% of SMEs maintain their own website): social media are indispensable showcases, but a brand's centre of gravity should remain an asset it controls — a secured domain name and a standalone site — with social accounts as satellites. Whoever controls their online presence weathers platform whims; whoever rents it entirely does not.

Covid-19: vigilance against cyber-attacks

The pandemic unleashed a wave of cyberattacks riding on fear. The article inventories the vectors observed: phishing campaigns impersonating pharmaceutical companies, banks or the WHO to distribute malware; malicious applications and ransomware, including contaminated 'pandemic maps' that lock devices until ransom is paid; donation scams exploiting solidarity with medical research; and fraudulent teleconsultations. A US federal court had just ordered, on 22 March 2020, the shutdown of a site selling fake WHO vaccine kits. Registrars worldwide undertook to identify and remove malicious 'covid' and 'coronavirus' registrations — a task requiring human review, 'corona' having legitimate meanings in several languages. Institutions were not spared: the WHO, the US Department of Health and the Paris hospitals all suffered attacks. The message: vigilance, for organisations and individuals alike.

30 March 2020
Initially published on iptwins.com

Lacoste v Shein: When a Platform Can No Longer Hide Behind Hosting Status

A platform is not one legal object. In Lacoste v Roadget Business Pte. Ltd. and Infinite Styles Services Co. Ltd. (Paris, Pôle 5 ch. 1, 8 July 2026, RG 25/12454), the Court of Appeal refused to let the operators of shein.com shelter behind the hosting exemption of Article 6 of the Digital Services Act: goods “sold by Shein”, Shein labels and packaging, and the Commission’s designation of the service as a very large online platform revealed a hybrid activity, and the characterisation attached not to the platform as a whole but to the role actually played in the disputed transactions. The judgment reaches beyond the twenty offending products. “Lacoste”, typed into the internal search engine, infringes the word marks; “crocodile”, a free word, grounds unfair competition and parasitism. Interim damages rise from €30,000 to €300,000 — the defendants’ own failure to disclose their turnover counting against them — and the measures run across the European Union.

28 August 2026
Initially published on iptwins.com

COSHIELD: The Scope of the UDRP in Trademark Disputes

Not every dispute involving a trade mark and a domain name amounts to cybersquatting. In Polyco Healthline Limited v. David Beatson (WIPO Case No. D2026-1893), the panelist denied the complaint brought against coshield.com, a domain used since 2020 to sell personal protective equipment in the very sector where the complainant has exploited its SHIELD trade mark since 1997, and despite a settlement agreement concluded between the parties in 2021. The decision turns on the moment of acquisition: created in 2014, the domain name appears to have changed hands in May 2020, at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the combination of “Co” and “Shield” could describe the business rather than target Polyco. The evidence being “finely balanced”, bad faith was not established. This article examines why trade mark infringement and cybersquatting are two paths that do not necessarily converge.

23 August 2026
Initially published on iptwins.com

Article Information

Author

Emmanuel Gillet

Publication Date

26 December 2022

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