Tenth Circuit Kills the Initial Interest Confusion Doctrine–1-800 Contacts v. Lens.com
…in the ad copy. 1-800 Contacts sued Lens.com in 2007. In 2010, the district court destroyed 1-800 Contacts’ arguments, handing Lens.com a complete win. On appeal, the Tenth Circuit upholds…
Suing Over Keyword Advertising Is A Bad Business Decision For Trademark Owners–General Steel v. Chumley (Forbes Cross-Post)
…won summary judgment: J.G. Wentworth v. Settlement Funding (2007); Designer Skin v. S&L Vitamins (2008); 1-800 Contacts v. Lens.com (2010); Montana Camo v. Cabela’s (2011); Jurin v. Google (2012) (note:…
Copyright Trolling Is Really Hard to Do Profitably–Righthaven v. Hoehn
By Eric Goldman Righthaven LLC v. Hoehn, 2013 WL 1908876 (9th Cir. May 9, 2013) It’s been a rough week for copyright trolls. First, Judge Wright destroyed the Prenda Law…
Suing Like It’s 2009: Parts.com Sues Google and Yahoo for Keyword Advertising
…outcome. This lawsuit fits a trend that I’ve mentioned before: trademark owners with crappy trademarks are often unusually pugnacious about enforcing their purported trademark rights. 1-800 Contacts is my premier…
Competitive Keyword Advertising Lawsuit Survives Motion to Dismiss–Elcometer v. TCQ-USA
By Eric Goldman Elcometer, Inc. v. TQC-USA, Inc., 2013 WL 1433388 (E.D. Mich. April 9, 2013) There are so many competitive keyword advertising lawsuits that I can’t track them systematically,…
California Supreme Court: Retail Privacy Statute Doesn’t Apply to Download Transactions – Apple v Superior Court (Krescent)
…Journal Beats Lawsuit Alleging Violation of California’s “Shine the Light” Privacy Statute — Boorstein v. Men’s Journal “Electronically Printed” Does not Include Automated Merchant Email — Shlahtichman v. 1-800 Contacts…
Another Google AdWords Advertiser Defeats Trademark Infringement Lawsuit–CollegeSource v. AcademyOne (Forbes Cross-Post)
…and I believe it’s no longer good law. * defendant won summary judgment: J.G. Wentworth v. Settlement Funding (2007); Designer Skin v. S&L Vitamins (2008); 1-800 Contacts v. Lens.com (2010);…
Q3 2012 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks/Domain Names, Patents, Trade Secrets)
…1-800 Contacts (Fed. Cir. Aug. 3, 2012): “LENS mark is used only in connection with the sale and transportation of contact lenses via the Internet. Although the ordering service is…
Newly Released Consumer Survey Indicates that Legal Concerns About Competitive Keyword Advertising Are Overblown (Forbes Cross-Post)
…just revenue) from the litigated terms. In 1-800 Contacts v. Lens.com, Lens.com made $20 of profit from competitive keyword ads. 1-800 Contacts unsuccessfully tried to hold Lens.com responsible for affiliate…
Google Sued Again for AdWords Trademark Infringement–Home Decor Center v. Google
…ridiculous trademark lawsuits, 1-800 Contacts). Are more lawsuits like this in the works for Google? Almost certainly. Will lawsuits like this pose a problem for Google? No. I think both…