Who owns company Twitter account?

“Who, exactly, owns your Twitter account?” a CNN.com article this morning asks, stating that “It's a potentially complicated question when an account is used both professionally and personally.

Now there’s a California case concerning whether a Twitter account belongs to a company or a former employee that CNN says “may blaze new trails in social media law.”

PhoneDog, a website devoted to all things mobile products and services, filed suit against former employee Noah Kravitz in California Northern District Court for $340,000 last July, alleging Kravitz' continued use of the Twitter account he was "given use of" while employed with PhoneDog after his leaving was a misappropriation of trade secrets and damaged the company's business, goodwill, and reputation.

Kravitz' motion to dismiss because of lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim have up to this point been denied and denied in part, granted in part, respectively. ( Order )