Union Organizers’ Activist/Gripe Sites Don’t Support Trademark Claims–Cintas v. Unite Here
By Eric Goldman Cintas Corp. v. Unite Here, 2009 WL 604099 (S.D.N.Y. March 9, 2009). The Unite Here press release. Cintas, a Fortune 500 company, manufactures uniforms. The defendants are unions and affiliated folks interested in unionizing Cintas’ workforce. This…
Utah HB 450 Dies in Utah Senate Without a Vote
By Eric Goldman After barely passing the Utah House, Utah HB 450–Utah’s third ill-fated attempt to regulate keyword advertising–died quietly last night when the Utah Senate failed to act on it before the Utah Legislature adjourned for the year. My…
Fifth Circuit Denies Yahoo’s Jurisdictional Appeal in American Airlines Case
By Eric Goldman In re: Yahoo! Inc; Overture Services, Inc., No. 09-10098 (5th Cir. March 11, 2009) In January, the Texas district court denied Yahoo’s request to transfer the American Airlines keyword advertising lawsuit out of Texas and into Yahoo’s…
Rip-off Report Lawsuit Updates: Certain Approval Programs and Ecommerce Innovations
By Eric Goldman Certain Approval Program v. Xcentric Certain Approval Programs, L.L.C. v. XCentric Ventures L.L.C., 2009 WL 596582 (D. Ariz. March 9, 2009). I previously blogged about this case in November. This ruling is in response to the plaintiff’s…
The Third Wave of Internet Exceptionalism
By Eric Goldman [I initially wrote this as an editorial for our University magazine and republished that version through InformIT as well. Here’s the original unedited version I submitted.] From the beginning, the Internet has been viewed as something special…
Conference on the 100th Anniversary of the 1909 Copyright Act, April 30, SCU
By Eric Goldman Please come to a Conference on the 100th Anniversary of the 1909 Copyright Act, April 30, at Santa Clara University. The event is co-sponsored by the High Tech Law Institute, Santa Clara University School of Law and…
Utah House Barely Passes HB 450 (Maybe)–UPDATED
By Eric Goldman The Utah legislature is continuing its embarrassing third attempt to regulate keyword advertising. Today, after making a ticky-tack amendment, the Utah House passed HB 450 and sent the bill to the Senate. However, the House was sharply…
Cook County Sheriff Sues Craigslist for Erotic Services Category
By Eric Goldman Dart v. Craigslist, Inc., 09-CV-1385 (N.D. Ill. complaint filed March 5, 2009) Dart, the Cook County, Illinois sheriff, has sued Craigslist in federal court for creating a “public nuisance” because its “Erotic Services” category facilitates prostitution. Unfortunately…
Utah Trying to Regulate Keyword Advertising….Again!? Utah HB 450
By Eric Goldman When I first heard that the Utah legislature is considering yet another law to regulate keyword advertising, I thought: Are you kidding me? After all, Utah has pursued these regulations twice with disastrous results. The first time,…
Facebook Sued Over Private Facebook Group–Finkel v. Facebook
By Eric Goldman Finkel v. Facebook, Inc., 102578-09 (N.Y. Supreme Ct. complaint filed Feb. 24, 2009). A New York teenager has sued Facebook and four Facebook users (plus their parents) for allegedly defamatory content posted in a private Facebook group…