Facebook Doesn’t Violate Antitrust Law When It Controls Its Users’ Experience–Sambreel v. Facebook (Forbes Cross-Post)

By Eric Goldman Sambreel Holdings LLC v. Facebook, Inc., 2012 WL 5995240 (S.D. Cal. Nov. 29, 2012) As successful Internet companies evolve from shoestring start-ups into marketplace incumbents, inevitably their reward will include antitrust challenges to their conduct.  The flagship example…

Useful Article on the First Sale Doctrine in Trademark Law (Guest Blog Post)

By Guest Blogger Yvette Joy Liebesman [Eric’s Note: We’ve repeatedly blogged on first sale/exhaustion principles on the blog, usually lamenting how easily circumscribed they are (see, e.g,. the posts about Mary Kay v. Weber and the Beltronics case) and the…

Amazon Not Liable for Affiliates’ Allegedly Bad Acts–Routt v. Amazon

By Eric Goldman Routt v. Amazon.com, Inc., C12-1307JLR (W.D. Wash. Nov. 30, 2012) Sandy Routt is an artist (check out SandysBeachGifts.com if you care). She claims that Amazon affiliates (called “associates” in Amazon’s vernacular) displayed her copyrighted photos (product shots)…

The Problems With Software Patents (Forbes Cross-Post)

By Eric Goldman The U.S. patent system largely treats all innovations equally, but innovation often works quite differently in different industries.  In particular, the software industry differs from other major innovative industries–such as computer hardware and biotech/pharmaceuticals–in several key ways,…

Yet Another Ruling That Competitive Keyword Ad Lawsuits Are Stupid–Louisiana Pacific v. James Hardie (Forbes Cross-Post)

By Eric Goldman Louisiana Pacific Corp. v. James Hardie Building Products, Inc., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 162980 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 14, 2012). The initial complaint. The amended complaint filed after this ruling. It’s been surreal watching plaintiff-side trademark lawyers lament…

Lawsuit Over “Google Tags” Dismissed–Frezza v. Google

By Eric Goldman Frezza v. Google, 2012 WL 5877587 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 20, 2012) In Feb. 2010, Google introduced Google Tags, an advertising option in Google Places. Google Tags is now dead, but Google’s still dealing with the aftermath. To…

Expert Report on the Value of Consumer Review Websites and 47 USC 230

By Eric Goldman [Eric’s note: most expert reports in litigation never see the light of day. Naturally, this collides with my blogger’s ethos of leaving no thought unpublished. As a result, after preparing this expert report regarding the social value…

AmeriGas Gives Up Its Lawsuit Against PissedConsumer

By Eric Goldman AmeriGas and Opinion Corp. (PissedConsumer) have settled their case. Law360 report. My prior blog post on a preliminary ruling in this case. I blog about settlements only occasionally, but I thought this settlement was interesting for two…

Engaging Facebook Friends Doesn’t Violate Non-Solicitation Clause–Invidia v. DiFonzo

By Eric Goldman Invidia, LLC, v. Maren DiFonzo, 2012 WL 5576406 (Mass. Super. Ct. Oct. 22, 2012) Let me start with a baseline proposition: we in California have it so much better than the rest of the country because employer-employee…

Scribd Botches Its Frictionless Sharing Implementation…AGAIN (Forbes Cross-Post)

By Eric Goldman I’m generally a skeptic of “frictionless sharing,” such as automatically publishing to my friends a list of the articles I’ve read.  Frictionless sharing takes a good idea–sharing with my friends the best things I’ve seen in the day–and…