Linkwrap of Google’s Antitrust Deal With the FTC
By Eric Goldman It seems like forever since the FTC settled its antitrust investigation with Google, even though it’s been less than 3 months. My recap post from the initial announcement. We’re waiting for the European denouement, but in the…
First Amendment Protects Online Republication of Court Records–Nieman v. VersusLaw
By Eric Goldman Nieman v. VersusLaw, Inc., 2013 WL 1150277 (7th Cir. March 19, 2013) [As I mentioned in my prior post about the case, the plaintiff has made legal threats against me for the same conduct discussed in this…
Griping Blogger Protected by Fair Use But Not Section 230–Ascend Health v. Wells
By Eric Goldman Ascend Health Corp. v. Wells, 2013 WL 1010589 (E.D.N.C. March 14, 2013) Brenda Wells gripes about University Behavioral Health of Denton (“UBH”) at two blogs, which she promotes via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. UBH and related parties…
Book Recommendation: “Trademark and Deceptive Advertising Surveys”
By Eric Goldman I read only a couple of books per year. As very long-form scholarship, books usually require big blocks of time to read (and I rarely have such blocks), and I typically find the payoff isn’t worth the…
It’s Legally Okay if Google Thinks Your Name and Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Have Something to Do With Each Other (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Stayart v. Google Inc., 2013 WL 811793 (7th Cir. March 6, 2013). Would you be upset if people searching for your name are prompted to search for your name plus the name of an erectile dysfunction drug like…
“Regulation of Social Media and Mobile Media” Talk Slides
By Eric Goldman Last month, I spoke at the ABA Antitrust Section’s always-well-done Consumer Protection Conference. This time I was recruited as the provocateur to discuss the challenges of regulating social media and mobile media. Regular readers know where I…
Amazon’s Merchandising of Its Search Results Doesn’t Violate Trademark Law (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Multi Time Machine, Inc. v. Amazon.com, 2013 WL 638888 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 20, 2013). The complaint. No retailer does a better job of cross-selling to its customers than Amazon.com ($AMZN). Amazon is quite effective at exposing customers to…
Buying Keyword Ads on People’s Names Doesn’t Violate Their Publicity Rights–Habush v. Cannon (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Habush v. Cannon, 2013 WL 627251 (Wisc. App. Ct. Feb. 21, 2013) Can you imagine someone buying Google ($GOOG) AdWords keyword advertising triggered by your name? Most of us wouldn’t dream of it, usually because our names just…
Resetting One of the Longest Running Cyberbullying Cases–DC v. RR (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Sruli Yellin [Eric’s introduction: In the course of blogging over the past 8+ years, I’ve read hundreds or even thousands of cases. This case ranks in my top 1% of most interesting and memorable cases. Today, we’d…
Building Owner Can’t Discover the Identity of Tenant Who Writes Bashing Yelp Review (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Brompton Building, LLC v. Yelp!, Inc., 2013 IL App (1st) 120547-U (Ill. App. Ct. Jan. 31, 2013) Battles over online anonymity aren’t new, and we’ve made a lot of progress clarifying the legal rules. Usually, when a…