Section 230 Doesn’t Protect Employer From Negligent Supervision Claim–Lansing v. Southwest Airlines. Warning: Ugly Opinion
By Eric Goldman Lansing v. Southwest Airlines Co., 2012 IL App (1st) 101164 (Ill. Ct. App. June 8, 2012) Overview This is a bad opinion. The court reaches the correct result that 47 USC 230 doesn’t immunize an employer for…
First Post-Viacom 512(c) Opinion Doesn’t Look Much Different–Obodai v. Demand Media
By Eric Goldman Obodai v. Demand Media, Inc., 2012 WL 2189740 (SDNY June 13, 2012) This is the first substantive ruling I’ve seen interpreting the Second Circuit’s Viacom v. YouTube ruling. (The Viacom ruling was also discussed in the Ouellette…
Recap of the Fourth Trademark Scholars Roundtable at DePaul University
By Eric Goldman In April, Graeme Dinwoodie and Mark Janis once again convened a roundtable of trademark law scholars to geek it out on trademark law. Group photo. This year’s theme was “trademark boundaries,” i.e., how trademark law abuts against…
Nathenson on Teaching Internet Law
By Eric Goldman Ira Nathenson is a law professor at St. Thomas University in Florida. He has posted to SSRN an article called “Best Practices for the Law of the Horse: Teaching Cyberlaw and Illuminating Law Through Online Simulations,” which…
More Evidence That the Initial Interest Confusion Doctrine is Dying–Dwyer v. Sensocon
By Eric Goldman Dwyer Instruments, Inc. v. Sensocon, Inc., 2012 WL 2049921 (N.D. Ind. June 5, 2012) Earlier this year, I blogged about some research I had done suggesting the declining fortunes of the initial interest confusion doctrine. I anticipated…
University of Alabama Can’t Stop Paintings of Famous Crimson Tide Football Moments–University of Alabama v. New Life Art
By guest blogger Deborah Gerhardt [Eric’s introduction: Deborah Gerhardt is a law professor at University of North Carolina. She is part of the 3G team (including myself and Leah Chan Grinvald) working on the trademark policing article I mentioned last…
Bank Can’t Use Facebook for Service of Process — Fortunato v. Chase Bank
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Fortunato v. Chase Bank USA, N.A., 2012 WL 2086950 (S.D.N.Y.; June 7, 2012) [pdf] Fortunato was an apparent victim of identify theft–her estranged daughter allegedly opened up a Chase credit card in her name and racked…
State Privacy Claims not Preempted by ECPA — Leong v. Carrier IQ
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Leong v. Carrier IQ et al., CV 12-01562 GAF (NRWx) (C.D. Cal.; Apr. 27, 2012) This case addresses the issue of whether claims under state privacy statutes are preempted by ECPA, the federal statute governing the…
Court Orders Facebooking Juror to Disclose Additional Facebook Posts–Juror No. 1 v. Superior Court
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Juror Number One v. Superior Court, C067309 (Ca Ct. App.; May 31, 2012) A California Appeals Court ruled that although a juror’s Facebook posts were covered by the Stored Communications Act, the juror can be compelled…
Trademark Registrant Isn’t Required to Shut Down Competitive Keyword Advertisers–STK v. Backrack
By Eric Goldman STK LLC v. Backrack, Inc., Cancellation No. 92049332, 2012 WL 2024459 (TTAB May 21, 2012). The TTAB designated this opinion “non-precedential,” which they do with the vast majority of their opinions. Deborah Gerhardt, Leah Chan Grinvald and…