California Adopts Safeguards for Employee and Student Social Media Accounts

Will other States follow suit and enact similar restrictions on accessing social media account information?

Dallas (I-Newswire) November 14, 2012 - The California Legislature recently passed two new laws, which may restrict employers’ (Assembly Bill 1844) and educators’ (Senate Bill 1349) access to the social media accounts of employees. With certain exceptions, the bills limit employers from asking employees for social media account information and limit post-secondary schools from asking similar information from students.

Will other State’s follow suit and adopt similar restrictions? “It will be interesting to see whether this legislation starts a trend with other States,” explains intellectual property lawyer, Darin M. Klemchuk, partner at Klemchuk Kubasta LLP. “Questions still exist as to the definition of ‘social media’ and as to whether an account is personal, work-related, or a mix of both. The laws certainly raise interesting issues about the work-place dynamic.”

About Darin Klemchuk:
Darin Klemchuk is co-founder and managing partner of Klemchuk Kubasta LLP, a Dallas-based IP boutique law firm that offers comprehensive intellectual property legal services, including litigation and enforcement of all forms of intellectual property as well as registration and licensing of patents, trademarks, trade dress and copyrights. To contact Mr. Klemchuk, email him at darin.klemchuk@kk-llp.com

About Klemchuk Kubasta LLP:
Based in Dallas, Texas, Klemchuk Kubasta LLP is an IP boutique law firm that offers comprehensive intellectual property legal services, including litigation and enforcement of all forms of intellectual property as well as registration and licensing of patents, trademarks, trade dress, and copyrights. The firm also provides legal services relating to domain names, e-commerce, privacy policies, social media, Internet law, commercial and business litigation, technology transactions, and international business & trade. Additional information about the firm and its attorneys may be found at www.kk-llp.com.