COLUMBIA, S.C. (WACH/AP) -- A federal judge has ruled that a South Carolina company's lawsuit against a former employee over Twitter followers can go forward.

U.S. District Judge Maria-Elena James ruled Monday that Noah Kravitz had not made strong enough arguments to dismiss the lawsuit by PhoneDog LLC.

The Mount Pleasant company reviews mobile devices like phones and tablets. PhoneDog sued Kravitz in July, saying for the former writer owes them $340,000 for taking 17,000 Twitter followers with him when he left in 2010.

According to Columbia Attorney Todd Kincannon, there are some rulings which may predetermine the outcome..

"South Carolina law says that a customer list is something that can be kept, they made a mistake from the get go, shouldn't have done it," said Kincannon.

The company says that, when Kravitz resigned, he changed his Twitter name from PhoneDog--Noah to noahkravitz and kept his 17,000 followers. The company says the followers should be treated like a customer list, and therefore PhoneDog's property.

Kravitz's attorney said he thinks his client will ultimately prevail in the case.