In this case, Merck KGAa, based in Darmstadt, Germany, filed a request for Facebook page www.facebook.com/merck in March 2010, according to a petition filed with the Supreme Court of New York, available here. Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK) in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey also has a Facebook page. According to the petition, German Merck checked its account on Oct. 11 only to discover it no longer had administrative rights to the web page. After trying unsuccessfully to get the matter resolved, according to the petition, Robert B.G. Horowitz of Baker & Hostetler in New York City took legal action.

Just to ease the confusion, pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. and chemistry, biotechnology and pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA are unrelated entities. Merck & Co came about following the end of World War I through a provision in the Treaty of Versailles. Each owns exclusive rights to the Merck trademark in different geographical areas.

A spokesman for Merck & Co, said this is all a “tempest in a teacup.” Facebook shut down its vanity web page, the spokesman said, but that’s simply a shorter url than its original web page, which is still active.  “Nothing is going to change” on its Facebook page, the spokesman said.

He added: “At this point, we are still evaluating how this happened and we are considering our options.”

For its part, Facebook’s PR shifted into gear a lot faster than the company’s administration, which took more than one month to address the issue. A spokesman for Facebook said it has apologized to Merck KGAa and blamed the dispute on an administrative error — a response, I might add, I received so fast that it either says more about Facebook’s whiplash fast flacks, or the desire to remove itself from the unwelcome prospect of a legal battle with Big Pharma. The company said in an email:

“The transfer of the vanity URL Facebook.com/Merck from Merck KGAa to Merck
& Co. was due to an administrative error. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

One lawyer observed that it is an intellectual property issue and because trademarks are geographic, two different companies can own the same brand in two different places. But the Internet and social media in particular in this case has blurred those geographic divisions and made it easier for companies to bump into each other in ways that were impossible in previous eras.

I’m betting that this is neither the only time this has happened, nor will it be the last time. Hopefully when Facebook gets rid of the egg from its face, it will work out a system for addressing these issues in a more timely fashion.

That’s because more healthcare organizations are taking notice of what others are doing with social media and seeing the need to collaborate on new ways to implement social media throughout the healthcare system, according to the director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, Lee Aase.

Aase is part of the team that has helped Mayo Clinic establish itself as the poster child for healthcare social media. In the past year, Mayo has launched its own social networking site that has attracted more than 7,000 users, created Spanish-language Facebook and Twitter accounts, and encouraged its doctors to get on board with social media. Today, he took some time after giving his keynote address at the conference to answer some questions about what’s new and important in healthcare social media.

What is the biggest challenge facing healthcare marketers in using social media?

“If people are only thinking of these as marketing tools, they’re missing opportunities,” Aase said. “That’s probably part of the reason for the growth this year.”

Social media is no longer used just for marketing purposes — it now has a place in medical education and medical research. “These tools aren’t just about building market shares, but they’re about helping patients and connecting providers,” he said.

Part of the challenge for organizations is developing a careful social media strategy that actually supports what they want to accomplish, rather than just going all out on every social media platform available. Organizations should look at what they want to accomplish through non-social media means and then spend some time thinking about which social media tools could help them reach those goals, Aase suggested.

What is the biggest strength when it comes to using social media in healthcare?

Social media has made it possible for in-depth communication to happen among parties who have similar medical interests. “The thing about healthcare is that no one cares about it until they get sick, and then they get interested in it deeply,” Aase said.

Patient-initiated research, a panel topic at the conference, was previously unthinkable without social media. But now, Dr. Sharonne Hayes, a cardiologist at Mayo, is leading a study on a rare heart condition that was initiated by a woman in Virginia who turned to social media for help in understanding her condition. She organized a group of 12 patients with spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) in four different countries, and Dr. Hayes compiled their data for a pilot study. Now Mayo is collecting information from 200 more patients and conducting two bigger studies on SCAD.

What’s the next big thing Mayo will do with social media?

In the next few weeks, Mayo will roll out another mobile app to connect patients with its online community. But its priority from now until February, according to Aase, will be promoting heart health through a social media campaign called “Know Your Numbers,” launched this morning at the conference. It combines a YouTube video, a Facebook app and a contest to raise awareness leading up to American Heart Month.

What does Mayo get out of hosting this conference?

“It’s keeping with our organization’s DNA,” Aase said. “For over 100 years we know we’ve been in a not-so-easy-to-get-to location, and yet our founders said, we’re not going to let that be a barrier to having an impact.” Having a reason for lots of people to physically come to Mayo Clinic is a great opportunity, he said, but it’s also about helping others learn about how to take advantage of the social media tools available and to create connections that will ultimately help patients.

What’s the coolest application you’ve seen of healthcare social media not done by Mayo?

Aase cited a few popular YouTube videos, including one of a dog running a half-marathon for cancer research and another of the da Vinci surgery robot folding a paper airplane the size of a penny, that he thought were interesting. Although you can never predict when a video will go viral, if it does, it can have a real impact (Envoy, anyone?).

How does he determine which companies need help?  “I look to see how easy is it for me to leave my contact information,” he says.  And don’t ask him for his physical address or industry. “If I want to find out about your stress machine, why do you need my physical address?”  The lesson: Make it easy as possible for a prospect to get in touch with you.

Another lesson: If you are in medical device marketing or sales, listen to what this industry leader is doing and copy him.

WHO IS JOE HAGE?

Joe Hage is a Wharton MBA and 20-year marketing professional. Before his 3+ years in medical device marketing, Joe did everything BUT medical. Joe is classically trained in consumer packaged goods (Kraft Foods, Campbell Soup), internet marketing (1800FLOWERS.com), agency work, and B2B marketing (FedEx, Safeco Insurance). At a publicly traded medical device company (Cardiac Science), Joe helped create an entirely new web presence and strategy, helped increased page views by 253 percent, introduced social media, and helped generate a lead pipeline in excess of $7 million.

IN THIS INTERVIEW, WE DISCUSS:

• Your access to a downloadable list of US Doctors on Twitter. It’s sortable by specialty, geography, and more. Can you say “invaluable resource”?
• How Joe, with a limited medical device industry background, helped Cardiac Science become a medical device marketing leader.
• Why Joe thinks search engine optimization is among the most important elements for your marketing mix.
• How you can use editorials to demonstrate medical device industry leadership.
• Why sending prospects to your site homepage may not be the best idea.
• How you can use social media in an industry as regulated as medical devices.
• And much, much more!

DOWNLOAD THE INTERVIEW:

PDF Transcript of Interview with Medical Device Marketer Joe Hage

Original Audio Interview with Medical Device Marketer Joe Hage

CONNECT WITH JOE HAGE:

Joe Hage is the Founder and CEO of Medical Marcom, a medical device marketing consultancy. Check out his frequently updated Medical Marcom blog and join his #MedDevice Group on LinkedIn.