By Eric Goldman [Note: I just got back from the Netherlands, where I had extremely limited Internet connectivity, so sorry for my absence in the last week (although you were in good hands with Venkat). I will be posting more...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on June 3, 2010 11:06 AM
By Eric Goldman Skydive Arizona, Inc. v. Quattrocchi, 2010 WL 1743189 (D. Ariz. April 29, 2010). A jury found that the defendants had committed trademark infringement, false advertising and cybersquatting and awarded $2.5M in damages, which the judge doubled. Unfortunately,...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on May 10, 2010 02:09 PM
By Eric Goldman FragranceNet.com, Inc. v. FragranceX.com, Inc., 2010 WL 174159 (E.D.N.Y. Jan. 14, 2010) I previously blogged about this case in 2007. That ruling was one of several in New York that, following the Rescuecom v. Google district court...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on January 21, 2010 12:11 PM
By Eric Goldman Guest blogger John Ottaviani recently dropped by to offer his perspectives on 2009’s top Cyberlaw developments. While I like his list a lot, I independently developed my own top 10 list that has a different emphasis. You...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on January 11, 2010 10:46 AM
By Eric Goldman Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., v. Fung, 2:06-cv-05578-SVW-JC (C.D. Cal. Dec. 21, 2009) In a potentially significant ruling that got a little lost in the Christmas rush, a federal district court ruled on summary judgment that the “torrent...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on December 30, 2009 09:41 AM
By Eric Goldman Few Internet technologies have horked cyberlaw as much as keyword metatags. Back in the 1990s, some search engines indexed keyword metatags, which encouraged some websites to stuff their keyword metatags as a way of gaming the rankings....
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on September 22, 2009 10:02 AM
By Eric Goldman Art Attacks Ink LLC v. MGA Entertainment, Inc., CV-04-01035-RMB (9th Cir. Sept. 16, 2009) What is it about metatags that cause legal folks to believe they have magical search powers? It's a meme that the legal community...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on September 16, 2009 03:44 PM
By Eric Goldman The EFF has posted "Avoiding Gripes About Your Gripe (or Parody) Site," which includes 6 prophylactic recommendations to prospective gripers: 1) Be noncommercial — no ads, no links to commercial sites, no affiliate links, no Café Press...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on May 20, 2009 11:13 AM
By Eric Goldman Deltek, Inc. v. Iuvo Systems, Inc., 2009 WL 1073196 (E.D. Va. April 20, 2009). The Justia page. Every year in Cyberlaw, I teach Promatek v. Equitrac, a Seventh Circuit metatags case from 2002 noteworthy for its multiple...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on April 28, 2009 09:31 AM
By Eric Goldman Three trademark owner v. advertiser rulings from the past month: Hearts on Fire Co. v Blue Nile, Inc., 2009 WL 794482 (D. Mass. March 27, 2009). The Justia page. This is an interesting and potentially very important...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on April 27, 2009 09:56 AM
By Eric Goldman Rescuecom Corp. v. Google Inc., 562 F.3d 123 (2d Cir. April 3, 2009) The Second Circuit has issued its long-anticipated opinion in Rescuecom v. Google over Google's sale of trademarked keywords as ad triggers. In a disappointing...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on April 3, 2009 11:51 AM
By Eric Goldman Market America v. Optihealth Products, Inc., 2008 WL 5069802 (M.D.N.C. Nov. 21, 2008) This lawsuit involves the trademark "OPC-3." "OPC" is the generic term for "group of antioxidant bioflavonoids" that companies sell as dietary supplements. The plaintiff...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on December 8, 2008 12:28 PM
By Eric Goldman It's been a few months since I've blogged on new Rip-off Report litigation. For many companies, a blog hiatus might signal good news, but in Rip-off Report's situation, it merely reflects that I've been falling behind in...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on November 7, 2008 09:40 AM
By Eric Goldman Venture Tape Corp. v. McGills Glass Warehouse, 2008 WL 3959997 (1st Cir. Aug. 28, 2008). For more on the case, see the initial 2003 ruling denying a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction and a 2006...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on September 5, 2008 02:29 PM
By Eric Goldman Soilworks, LLC v. Midwest Indus. Supply, Inc., 2008 WL 3286975 (D. Ariz. Aug. 7, 2008) All too frequently, we get an opinion where the judge clearly didn't grasp current implementations of keyword advertising and metatagging. Often, it's...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on August 26, 2008 09:57 AM
By Eric Goldman It's not uncommon for courts to make judgments based on outdated understandings of precedent and technology, especially when dealing with dynamically evolving areas like Internet trademark law. Nevertheless, it can be a little dispiriting to read opinions...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on July 5, 2008 09:09 PM
By Eric Goldman Designer Skin, LLC v. S & L Vitamins, Inc., 2008 WL 2116646 (D. Ariz. May 20, 2008) An Arizona district court has ruled that the surreptitious use of trademarks doesn't create a likelihood of initial interest confusion,...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on June 5, 2008 10:49 AM
By Eric Goldman * Syncsort Inc. v. Innovative Routines Intern., Inc., 2008 WL 1925304 (D.N.J. April 30, 2008). Including a third party trademark in a keyword metatag qualified as nominative use. (Along the same lines, see the Designer Skin case...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on June 2, 2008 10:36 AM
By Eric Goldman Standard Process, Inc. v. Banks, 2008 WL 1805374 (E.D. Wis. April 18, 2008) SEOs and SEMs have known for years that most search engines ignore or give minimal acknowledgement to keyword metatags. Lawyers, on the other hand,...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on April 24, 2008 01:49 PM
By Eric Goldman North American Medical Corp. v. Axiom Worldwide, Inc., 2008 WL 918411 (11th Cir. April 7, 2008) Oh man, what a bizarre and frustrating ruling from the 11th Circuit on metatags. The parties compete in the "spinal decompression"...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on April 8, 2008 12:00 PM
By Eric Goldman Vail Associates, Inc. v. Vend-Tel-Co., Ltd., 2008 WL 342272 (10th Cir. Feb. 7, 2008) This case nicely illustrates that a vanity 800 number containing a third party trademark doesn't create a likelihood of consumer confusion. To the...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on February 11, 2008 11:45 AM
By Corynne McSherry and Eric Goldman [Eric's note: this is a bit of an unusual post for this blog, as it is being simultaneously posted both here and on the EFF Deep Links site] The tussle over keyword advertising has...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on January 29, 2008 07:05 AM
By Eric Goldman A look back at 2007: Most Popular Blog Posts 1) The Most Effective Anti-Terrorism Law EVER 2) Utah Bans Keyword Advertising 3) Rescuecom v. Google Law Professors' Amicus Brief [overflow from #1] 4) Sex.com -- An Update...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on December 31, 2007 10:45 AM
By Eric Goldman Marketing * I've blogged about Various, which operates AdultFriendFinder.com, before. They made the news recently in two ways. First, they sold to Penthouse for half-a-billion dollars. Second, they settled with the FTC for "pelting" users with unwanted...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on December 28, 2007 09:39 AM
By Eric Goldman S & L Vitamins, Inc. v. Australian Gold, Inc., 2:05-cv-1217 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 30, 2007) If it wasn't so painful for all involved, I would enjoy watching the legal contortions of companies whose outdated business models are being...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on October 8, 2007 04:49 PM
By Eric Goldman For years, I've been saying that keyword metatags are technologically irrelevant and therefore should be legally irrelevant. My conclusion was heavily based on the research of Danny Sullivan, a guru on this topic. Recently, Danny updated his...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on September 18, 2007 09:48 PM
By Eric Goldman FragranceNet.com, Inc. v. FragranceX.com, Inc., 2007 WL 1821153 (E.D.N.Y. June 12, 2007) This case shows the deepening split between the Second Circuit and other circuits on keyword triggering as TM use in commerce. This is now the...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on June 28, 2007 11:26 AM
By Eric Goldman Site Pro-1, Inc. v. Better Metal, LLC, 06-CV-6508 (ILG) (RER) (E.D.N.Y. May 9, 2007) The possible rift between the Second Circuit and other circuits on keyword triggering and trademark use in commerce may be widening. The latest...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on May 9, 2007 03:54 PM
By Eric Goldman J.G. Wentworth SSC Ltd v. Settlement Funding LLC, No. 06-0597 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 4, 2007) The keyword advertising legal roller-coaster continues. Last time I blogged on the matter in the Buying for the Home case, I indicated...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on January 5, 2007 10:34 AM
By Eric Goldman Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc. v. New Hampshire Youth Football & Spirit Conference, 2006 WL 2591480 (D. N.H. Sept. 11, 2006) Metatag lawsuits befuddle me for two reasons. First, and most importantly, KEYWORD METATAGS ARE IRRELEVANT from...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on September 25, 2006 06:37 PM
By Eric Goldman Picture It Sold, Inc. v. iSOLD It, LLC, 2006 WL 2467552 (9th Cir. Aug. 28, 2006) The plaintiff sued iSOLD for trademark infringement based on competitive keyword ad purchases, and it sought an injunction against continued keyword...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on August 30, 2006 02:21 PM
By Eric Goldman SMJ Group, Inc. v. 417 Lafayette Restaurant LLC, 2006 WL 1881768 (S.D.N.Y July 6, 2006) I've read so many horrible trademark decisions that I barely notice the garden-variety judicial screw-up. But this case is so exceptional and...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on July 13, 2006 12:05 PM
By Eric Goldman I have had virtually no Internet access over the past 10 days due to my move and travels, so my Bloglines account was bulging with more than 1700 articles. Here's a quick look at some of the...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on June 27, 2006 05:50 PM
By Eric Goldman Merck & Co. v. Mediplan Health Consulting, Inc., 2006 WL 1418616 (SDNY motion for reconsideration denied May 24, 2006) In late March, the legality of the search engine keyword advertising industry got very murky due to two...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on May 26, 2006 11:42 AM
By Eric Goldman Edina Realty, Inc. v. TheMLSonline.com, 2006 WL 737064 (D. Minn. Mar. 20, 2006) There have been many lawsuits involving keyword advertising, but in most of the reported decisions, the search engines were the defendants. There have been...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on March 29, 2006 03:18 PM
By John Ottaviani (with help from Eric) Cyberspace continues to present fascinating and novel intellectual property issues. What follows is our attempt at identifying some of the more significant “Cyberspace Intellectual Property” decisions of 2005. Once again, it was quite...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on February 21, 2006 07:07 AM
By Eric Goldman Australian Gold, Inc. v. Hatfield, 2005 WL 3739862 (10th Cir. Feb. 7, 2006) Following on a regressive initial interest confusion/metatags case from January, last week the 10th Circuit found initial interest confusion based on metatag usage and...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on February 13, 2006 05:15 PM
By Eric Goldman Good grief. Lawsuits over metatag usage are so 1999. Yet, we continue to get a steady stream of cases that treat inclusion of a competitor's trademark in a metatag as a per se trademark infringement. I've explained...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on February 3, 2006 07:12 AM
By Eric Goldman Salu, Inc. v. Pitts (E.D. Ca. complaint filed Nov. 17, 2005). Introduction Salu operates skinstore.com, a website that sells skin care products. (With that name, I was totally expecting to find a porn site, but the website...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on November 30, 2005 09:51 PM
By Eric Goldman WhenU has filed its opposition to 1-800 Contact's petition for certiorari from the US Supreme Court. WhenU's main argument: "1-800 mischaracterizes the decision below as holding that the “covert” use of a trademark can never support an...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on October 31, 2005 05:07 PM
It's hard to believe that this is going to be my 11th year teaching Cyberlaw. I've posted my newest syllabus for Fall 2005. The material I've assigned for the first time this year: Copyright * BMG v. Gonzalez (confirming direct...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on August 14, 2005 01:20 PM
For the past two years, John Ottaviani and I have compiled a list of the top Internet IP cases of the year. (Despite the attribution, John O. did all the heavy drafting work). See our lists for 2003 and 2004....
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on July 8, 2005 03:26 PM
Faegre & Benson v. Purdy, Civil File No. 03-6472 (D. Minn. Apr. 27, 2005). Another ruling in the long-running story of William Purdy, an anti-abortionist who uses extreme forms of gripe sites against his targets. This particular ruling was a...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on May 19, 2005 10:39 AM
I haven’t seen much discussion on the recent French opinion Societe Kaligona v. Societe Dreamnex, French Court of Appeals, Jan. 12, 2005. (I’m working from a BNA report—subscription required). The case involves two competing Internet sex shops. Dreamnex’s site saw...
Posted in Technology & Marketing Law Blog on February 9, 2005 01:12 PM