Call for Papers/Participation, 5th Annual Internet Law Work-in-Progress Conference, SCU, March 7, 2015
We invite your participation in the Fifth Annual Internet Law Work-in-Progress conference at Santa Clara University School of Law on March 7, 2015. The conference series is co-sponsored by the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of…
Shopkick Unable to Shake Text Spam Complaint — Huricks v. Shopkick
Shopkick is a rewards-based app that shoppers use on their phone while they are in-store shopping. I’m not precisely sure how it works (you get points for trying on items or walking in certain parts of the store?) but it…
Q3 2014 Quick Links, Part 1 (RTBF, Reviews, IP & More)
Right to Be Forgotten * U.S. Attitudes Toward the ‘Right to Be Forgotten’: 1. Sixty-one percent of Americans believe some version of the right to be forgotten is necessary. 2. Thirty-nine percent want a European-style blanket right to be forgotten,…
Lawsuit Against Adware Vendor Fails–Halperin v. Text Enhance
Text Enhance, a program developed by Affluent Ads, scans web page text for certain keywords. When the user mouses over any of those keywords, the adware serves up a pop-up ad on the user’s computer. Halperin ended up with Text…
A Seismic Ruling On Pre-1972 Sound Recordings and State Copyright Law–Flo & Eddie v. Sirius XM Radio (Guest Blog Post)
By Tyler Ochoa [Eric’s intro: in Tyler’s cover email to me, he told me the ruling was “huge, as in 1906-San-Francisco-earthquake huge. It literally could result in undoing 75 years of copyright history.”] A federal court in California has held…
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…