Furniture Retailer Enjoined from Sending eBay VeRO Notices–Design Furnishings v. Zen Path

By Eric Goldman Design Furnishings, Inc. v. Zen Path LLC, 2010 WL 4321568 (E.D. Cal. Oct. 21, 2010). The initial complaint filed by Design Furnishings. I’m a little late to this party (see, e.g., Evan Brown’s coverage), but it’s a…

Twitter Clarifies Usage Rules, but AFP Still Claims Unbridled Right to Use Content Posted to “Twitter/TwitPic”

[Post by Venkat] Twitter recently issued new guidelines regarding use of the “Twitter” and “Tweet” marks, and use of the underlying tweets by users and third parties as well: “Guidelines for Use of the Twitter Trademark.” The guidelines prompted some…

October 2010 Quick Links

By Eric Goldman Copyright * Greg Sandoval discusses copyright trolls with Cindy Cohn. You may recall I had an “interview” with Cindy as a guest lecture in my Internet Law course. And a belated congratulations to Cindy for her recognition…

Political Campaigns and Copyright Infringement

By Eric Goldman I might be wrong, but my unscientific impression is that political campaigns are encountering copyright issues more frequently than in the old days. Initially, I had hoped to catalog all of the recent incidents, but I realized…

Blogger Wins Fair Use Defense…On a Motion to Dismiss!–Righthaven v. Realty One

By Eric Goldman Righthaven LLC v. Realty One Group, Inc., 2010 WL 4115413 (D. Nev. Oct. 19, 2010) I’ve mentioned Righthaven before in my quick links, but this is my first full blog post about them. I trust most of…

First Sale and Exhaustion Doctrines in IP Conference, Nov. 5, SCU

By Eric Goldman I’ve mentioned our First Sale and Exhaustion in IP conference before, but now it’s less than 3 weeks away. If you were thinking about coming, now is a good time to confirm your spot. As regular readers…

Shining the Spotlight on Trademark Bullies (a Long-Delayed Recap of a Trademark Scholars Roundtable)

By Eric Goldman [Occasionally, a blog post gets “stuck” in draft mode for months. These posts typically do not age well, as intervening developments often render the post moot or less interesting. As a result, most stuck blog posts eventually…

Inflatable Giant Gorilla Attacks Google (for Copyright Infringement)–Scherba v. Google

By Eric Goldman Scherba Industries v. Google, Inc., 1:10-cv-02288 (N.D. Ohio complaint filed Oct. 7, 2010). Scherba makes giant inflatable gorillas. See an example. A little improbably, it has a copyright registration for a 3D sculptural work called “Gorilla Inflatable”–the…

September 2010 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP Edition)

By Eric Goldman Copyright * US v. ASCAP (2d Cir. Sept. 28, 2010): “the Internet Companies offer their customers the ability to download musical works over the Internet. It is undisputed that these downloads create copies of the musical works,…

Tip for Clean Living: Don’t Use a 14 Year Old’s Self-Portrait in Advertising for Porn–Lara Jade Coton v. TVX

By Eric Goldman Coton v. Televised Visual X-ography, Inc., 2010 WL 3768039 (M.D. Fla. Sept. 16, 2010). The initial complaint. Lara Jade’s blog post on the court victory. Comprehensive recap from Plagiarism Today, who has been tracking the case all…