Nov.-Dec. 2010 Quick Links, Part 2

By Eric Goldman Wikileaks Wikileaks has been on my mind for the past 2 months, but the stories have moved faster than I can. From my perspective, Wikileaks is principally a story about The Empire Strikes Back (It is a…

Ripoff Report Isn’t Bound By Injunction Against User Post–Blockowicz v. Williams

By Eric Goldman Blockowicz v. Williams, No. 10-1167 (7th Cir. Dec. 27, 2010) I blogged about this case a year ago. The Blockowiczs objected to allegedly defamatory posts on the Ripoff Report. They obtained a default injunction against the posters…

Nov.-Dec. 2010 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks and Advertising Edition)

By Eric Goldman I have a big backlog of Quick Links from the last 2 months. I’ll post them over the next few days. I also have a backlog of other blog posts I need to write, especially my reassessment…

Hotels Benefit When Distributors Reference the Hotel’s Trademark in Keyword Ad Copy

By Eric Goldman Lesley Chiou of Occidental College and Catherine Tucker of MIT have posted an empirical study, How Does the Use of Trademarks by Third-Party Sellers Affect Online Search? The study tries to model what happens when distributors use…

Viacom, FAPL and Amici File Briefs in Viacom v. YouTube Second Circuit Appeal

By Eric Goldman [note: all of the briefs referenced in this post are linked in the case library at the bottom of the post] Viacom and the FAPL have filed their opening appellate briefs in the Second Circuit appeal of…

SEO/Web Design Consultant Faces Contributory Trademark Liability for “Copycat” E-Commerce Site–Roger Cleveland Golf v. Price

By Eric Goldman Roger Cleveland Golf Co. v. Price, 2010 WL 5019260 (D. S.C. Dec. 3, 2010). [Note: the case captioning is probably wrong. Apparently, it should have been Roger Cleveland Golf Co. v. Prince] Online contributory trademark infringement liability…

Advertising & Marketing Law Syllabus for Spring 2011

By Eric Goldman Next semester, I am teaching Advertising & Marketing Law for the first time. My syllabus. This is a brand-new course built from the ground up. As teaching materials, I will be using an early draft of a…

Rosetta Stone v. Google Amicus Briefs in Support of Google

By Eric Goldman Three amicus briefs were filed in support of Google in the Rosetta Stone v. Google appeal. eBay and Yahoo. This is the “industry” brief, although in the past, typically more players have joined a brief like this….

Rosetta Stone v. Google Appellate Briefs: Google’s Opening Brief and Rosetta Stone’s Unredacted Brief

By Eric Goldman Due to the intervention of Public Citizen, Rosetta Stone filed an unredacted brief in its appeal of Rosetta Stone v. Google. The actual redacted material seemed hardly worthy of confidentiality; in some cases, the information already was…

Another Ruling Challenging “Check the Website for Amendments” Contract Provisions–Roling v. E*Trade

By Eric Goldman Roling v. E*Trade Securities LLC, 2010 WL 4916401 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 22, 2010). The plaintiffs are suing over E*Trade’s allegedly unilateral imposition of an account maintenance fee for folks who didn’t make at least one quarterly trade….