In public relations, image is everything. Six months ago, Farmington Hills PR firm Tanner Friedman had its image hijacked by a Twitter impostor who used the firm's name to send out embarrassing messages via the social networking service.

The impostor, it turns out, was operating out of a building owned by Marx Layne, a rival PR firm that a few years ago was involved in an ugly court case with Don Tanner and Matt Friedman after the pair left the firm to start their own company.In a victory for Tanner Friedman yesterday, a judge ordered Twitter to give control of the account and identifying information to the firm.

"Whoever would do something like this is, in our opinion, bastardizing the medium," Tanner told Fox 2. "(The individual) has no respect for ethics and has no respect for honest communications."

The impostor used a form of subterfuge to win over followers and convince them of his or her legitimacy, Tanner previously explained.

Tanner Friedman yesterday took control of twitter.com/tannerfriedman and to date has posted only a simple, "Yes, it's really us."

Without the court ruling, Tanner Friedman likely would never have learned the culprit was operating out of Marx Layne, but it could have saved court costs simply by verifying its account with Twitter, a new service the social network is offering.