The topic of Twitter-squatting has arisen many times in both the Twittersphere and the blogosphere. It used to be a problem you only had to worry about with domains, which spawned the process of registering domain name misspellings and grabbing every TLD available.

Now, with microblogging continuing to rise in popularity amongst consumers and more businesses bringing their brands into the mix, we’ve seen an entire new fight begin with users racing to register accounts in the names of popular people and companies.

In a Get Satisfaction post by Crystal (@crystal), a support rep at Twitter, she outlines the latest improvement to the process for reclaiming registered, unused or inactive Twitter accounts:

Since inactive username requests are such a popular thing, they now have their own address. If you want to acquire an inactive username, please send a request [via email] to: username@twitter.com

The process is said to take 3-5 days to complete, “since inactive username requests come behind problem requests and bug reports in terms of priority.” This is actually an improvement over past efforts, which some users reported as taking months to process. Also, Crystal mentions that “someone [will be] looking at these daily.”

Information Needed to Process a Request

• The username you want
• Your existing username, if you have one
• Whether you want to change your username, or start a new account with the username you’re requesting

Please note: Twitter Support will change your username for you at the time of responding to the request so that the username doesn’t get taken by someone else. They will notify you by email when this happens.

Criteria for Reclaiming a Username on Twitter

While the process appears to have been improved, the same criteria allowing someone to gain access to a name seems to remain.

We generally have a 9 month rule; if a profile has been inactive for more than 9 months, we release the user name. In cases where the account has never been updated, Twitter can write the owner of the username about releasing it, but results vary.

Avoid Reclaiming by Being Proactive

The easiest way to gain access to a username is to be active in securing it. Due to the popularity of reclaiming requests, Twitter has developed a specific policy to deal with it. Other websites might not be so ready to deal with situations like this.

To save yourself the trouble of going through this process, use a site like Username Check to find out where your desired username has been registered, and then plan accordingly.

If Nothing Else Works, Seek Legal Counsel

If for some reason the process of reclaiming a Twitter username doesn’t work or you have difficulty securing a username on another website, consult with your legal counsel about acquiring the name. Brett J. Trout, P.C. (@bretttrout), has a great post about social media accountjacking that discusses what courses of action you have and important questions to consider before putting gears into motion.