Facebook is opening a free-for-all registration of vanity URL’s starting this Friday night.
What’s a vanity URL? Instead of your URL being a cryptic http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1128369056&ref=profile (that’s mine) you can get a branded URL that includes your company name like http://www.facebook.com/nextmark or personal name like http://www.facebook.com/jpych (note: these links don’t work yet).
You know every name squatter in the world will be raring to go at 12:01 a.m. and will be rushing to snatch up valuable names in the hope of extracting a ransom from you and everyone else who cares about their brand.
You can protect your trademarked name now by registering your trademark with Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=username_rights.
Unfortunately, you can’t use this for your own personal name, so be ready to snatch up yours when the time comes!