Washington State Supreme Court Hears an Interesting Privacy Case: Dillon v. Seattle Deposition Reporters
This is a super interesting case that’s working its way through the courts in Washington. In a nutshell, T-Mobile was a defendant in a breach of contract lawsuit brought by NetLogix in the Western District of Washington. T-Mobile was represented…
Congress May Crack Down On Businesses’ Efforts To Ban Consumer Reviews (Forbes Cross-Post)
Imagine a dentist telling her patients that they can’t write online reviews about her. Or a hotel deducting money from a newly married couple’s security deposit if any member of the wedding party blasts the hotel on Yelp. These types…
Trademark Owners Just Can’t Win Keyword Advertising Cases–EarthCam v. OxBlue
I have repeatedly observed that trademark owners routinely lose their lawsuits against advertisers who buy their trademarks as advertising keywords. (This is in addition to the futility of bringing trademark lawsuits against search engines, which almost no one does any…
NLRB Invalidates Employer’s Blogging Policy And Reverses Firing Based On Facebook Posts
This is another NLRB Facebook firing case. The employer is a bar and restaurant whose employees were chatting on Facebook about owing amounts in taxes allegedly as a result of paperwork mishaps on the employer’s part. LaFrance, a former employee…
Jointly Editable Online Document Doesn’t Provide Evidence of Contract Formation–Turner v. Temptu
The litigants discussed working together to launch a new product in the marketplace. As seems to be inevitable in situations like this, the parties’ relationship fell out. Trying to salvage something from the situation, Turner alleged the parties had formed…
The GOOGLE Mark Isn’t Generic–Elliott v. Google (Forbes Cross-Post)
The “Google” trademark regularly ranks as one of the most valuable trademarks in the world. In 2011, Forbes estimated the trademark’s value at $44B, and a more recent estimate placed the value at $113B. Almost certainly, the “Google” trademark is…
LiveJournal Wins 512(c) Safe Harbor Ruling For Celebrity Gossip Blog–Mavrix v. LiveJournal
This case involves a LiveJournal blog called “Oh No They Didn’t!” (ONTD) that republishes reader submissions about celebrity gossip. There are nine moderators of the blog, including one–Brian Delzer–who became a LiveJournal employee. Unsurprisingly given the blog’s subject, readers submitted…
9th Circuit Creates Problematic “Failure To Warn” Exception to Section 230 Immunity–Doe 14 v. Internet Brands
Doe sued Internet Brands, Inc., the owner of Model Mayhem, alleging that two unrelated individuals drugged and assaulted her (and recorded her for a pornographic video). It’s unclear precisely how the assailants used Model Mayhem, but the court merely says…
Employer Isn’t Liable When Former Employee Linked His Apple Accounts To Its Devices–Sunbelt v. Victor
Victor worked at Sunbelt as a sales rep but left to join a competitor. His former employer is suing him for trade secret misappropriation. Victor asserted privacy-based counterclaims. Sunbelt assigned him an iPhone and an iPad. He created an Apple…
Urban Outfitters’ Kent State T-Shirt Was Offensive But Probably Legal (Guest Blog Post)
By Tyler Ochoa As reported in various news outlets (including MSN and New York magazine), Urban Outfitters generated a storm of controversy on Twitter a few days ago, when it was discovered that it was offering for sale a “vintage”…