[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Hafke v. Rossdale Group, LLC, 11-cv-220 (W.D. Mich.; Oct. 7, 2011) Hafke described himself as someone who is “attempting to stop Spam in Michigan.” He sued Rossdale, a continuing legal education provider, complaining about six unsolicited…

By Eric Goldman Advertising Search Marketing * Search Engine Land: “In many cases, it is worth buying keywords even if you rank organically for them.” Similarly, a Google study indicates that PPC advertising lifts clicks on organic results. Prior blog…

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Commonwealth Mktg. Group v. IMG Assocs., 08-5074 (W.D. Wash. Sept. 28, 2011) Commonwealth Marketing asserted claims for indemnification against IMG Associates, for underlying claims brought by prolific spam plaintiff James Gordon. Among other cases, Gordon is…

By Eric Goldman FPX, LLC v. Google, Inc., 2011 WL 4783376 (E.D. Tex. Sept. 29, 2011) Google obtained a major victory in one of the most serious pending lawsuits against it challenging its AdWords keyword advertising program. Putative class action…

By Eric Goldman * In the Betty Boop case (Fleischer Studios v. AVELA), the Ninth Circuit stepped back from some of its perplexing language about aesthetic functionality and the Dastar opinion, but the revised opinion remains confusing. Rebecca’s coverage. *…

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Katz v. Pershing, LLC, 10-12227-RGS (D. Mass. Aug 23, 2011) Background: Katz maintained an account at National Planning Corporation, an “introducing firm” for which Pershing provides brokerage clearing services. Pershing’s services are provided on a proprietary…

By Eric Goldman I posted the following to the IPProfs email list: I teach the IP Survey course principally as a business law course, i.e., companies are trying to make business decisions, and IP doctrines can help (or hinder) those…

By Eric Goldman Crabb v. GoDaddy.com, Inc., 2:10-cv-00940-NVW (D. Ariz. Sept. 27, 2011) As online user agreements become longer and more byzantine, it’s become common for a “master” user agreement to incorporate numerous other documents by reference. For example, stylistically,…

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] DigiProtect USA v. Does, 10 Civ. 8760 (S.D.N.Y.; Sept. 26, 2011) Plenty of bad news for copyright plaintiffs lately. Righthaven is getting hammered left and right and is struggling (to say the least) to keep any…

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] In re J.G., A128898; A129157 (Ca Ct. App.; Sept. 30, 2011) Background: This involved a juvenile proceeding where J.G., a minor, was charged with the offenses of forcible sexual penetration and false imprisonment. During the proceedings,…