Yahoo Click Fraud Settlement Preliminary Approval

By Eric Goldman Checkmate Strategic Group, Inc. v. Yahoo, Inc., No. 2:05-CV-04588-CAS-FMO (C.D. Cal. preliminary settlement approved June 28, 2006) I’m a little late blogging this, but Yahoo has gotten preliminary approval to settle its click fraud lawsuits. The basic…

Google Click Fraud Report

By Eric Goldman In preparation for the court’s final approval of the settlement in the Lane’s Gifts v. Google click fraud case, the parties hired an expert to assess Google’s click fraud control mechanisms. The report can be found here….

Search Engine Liability for Selling Keywords Redux–800-JR Cigar v. GoTo.com

By Eric Goldman 800-JR Cigar, Inc. v. GoTo.com, Inc., 2006 WL 1971659 (D. N.J. July 13, 2006) This is a confusing but important case about search engine liability for selling trademarked keywords. Because of the opinion’s convoluted nature, there’s no…

Another Day, Another Lawsuit Over Search Engine Placement–Datner v. Yahoo

By Eric Goldman Datner v. Yahoo! Inc, Case No. BC355217 (Cal. Superior Court complaint filed July 11, 2006) Websites dropped from search engine databases may not be getting rich, but maybe their lawyers are. This is the latest entry in…

KinderStart Lawsuit Dismissed (With Leave to Amend)

By Eric Goldman KinderStart v. Google, Case 5:06-cv-02057-JF (N.D. Cal. motion to dismiss granted July 13, 2006) The judge granted Google’s motion to dismiss in the KinderStart lawsuit. Given the weakness of the lawsuit and the tenor of the judge’s…

Google Hits and Misses

By Eric Goldman BusinessWeek ran an article on Google’s new product launches entitled “So Much Fanfare, So Few Hits.” The article’s basic thesis: “after sparking substantial buzz, most of Google’s nonsearch offerings quickly fade from view…[a]n analysis of some two…

KinderStart Hearing and Source Documents

By Eric Goldman There was a hearing in the KinderStart v. Google case last Friday. The CNET News.com report does a good job recapping the action. (Here’s the recap from the Register). You should read the whole News.com article, but…

Google Child Porn Lawsuit Withdrawn–Toback v. Google

By Eric Goldman Sensing that his 15 minutes of fame was up, Jeffrey Toback has withdrawn his lawsuit against Google regarding Google’s alleged facilitation of child pornography. This withdrawal is hardly surprising given the lawsuit’s complete lack of merit. Nevertheless,…

Congress to Make Search Engine Bias Illegal?

By Eric Goldman Like we couldn’t see this coming. To make the point that the content providers are playing with fire, one member of Congress has proposed to sweep them into the Net Neutrality legislation (see the text). Ha ha….

“Must Carry” Lawsuit Against Search Engines–Langdon v. Google

By Eric Goldman Langdon v. Google, 1:06-cv-00319-JJF (D. Delaware complaint filed May 17, 2006) Omigosh, will these lawsuits over search engine editorial discretion ever cease? Earlier this week I reported on (yet another) lawsuit against Google for dropping a website…