Facebook’s Trademark Suit Against Teachbook Survives Motion to Dismiss
by Eric Goldman Facebook, Inc. v. Teachbook.com LLC, 2011 WL 4449686 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 26, 2011). Facebook has been helping many lawyers send their kids to private school with an expensive enforcement campaign to control the prefix “face” and suffix…
Colorado Judge Drills Righthaven and Awards Attorneys’ Fees–Righthaven v. Wolf
By Eric Goldman Righthaven LLC v. Wolf, 1:11-cv-00830-JLK (D. Colo. Sept. 27, 2011) Another judge, this time in Colorado, issued another stinging rebuke to Righthaven. This time it was Judge Kane in Colorado, and his decision will lead to the…
Stock Trading Message Board Protected by 47 USC 230–Deer Consumer Products v. Little
By Eric Goldman Deer Consumer Products v. Little, Index No. 650823/11 (NY Sup. Ct. Aug. 31, 2011) SeekingAlpha is a message board for stock traders. This is their second appearance on the blog. In Desai v. Clark, a SeekingAlpha author…
Failure to Delete Third Party Comments Supports a Malice Finding in Defamation Case–Tanner v. Ebbole
By Eric Goldman Tanner v. Ebbole, 2011 WL 4425540 (Ala. Civ. App. Ct. Sept. 23, 2011) Competitive animosity can be found in every industry, but it sometimes amazes me just how sharp it can. Today’s case involves competing tattoo shops…
Bad SEO Advice May Support Negligence Claim–D’Agostino v. Appliances Buy Phone
By Eric Goldman D’Agostino v. Appliances Buy Phone, Inc., 2011 WL 4345674 (D.N.J. Sept. 15, 2011). One iteration of the complaint. This is a confusing dispute, so I’m just going to focus on a few aspects. Based on the court’s…
Web Vendor Dispute Gets Ugly–Ground Zero Museum v. Wilson
By Eric Goldman Ground Zero Museum Workshop v. Wilson, 2011 WL 3758582 (D. Md. Aug. 24, 2011) Disputes like these make me wonder if we can’t find some way to get along. Suson runs a non-profit museum focused on the…
Request for Help: Doctor v. Patient Lawsuits Over Online Reviews
By Eric Goldman I’m doing some research, and I’m hoping you can help. I’m trying to comprehensively catalog doctor vs. patient lawsuits over online reviews of the doctor. I’m equally interested in suits by other health care professionals; I’ve noticed…
Ninth Circuit Upholds Web Host’s Liability for Counterfeiting Retailers–Louis Vuitton v. Akanoc
By Eric Goldman Louis Vuitton Malletier SA v. Akanoc Solutions, Inc., No. 10-15909 (9th Cir. Sept. 12, 2011). Prior blog posts: * Another Bad Ruling in Louis Vuitton v. Akanoc * Making Sense of the $32M Contributory Trademark Infringement Judgment…
Patent Conference Announcement, SCU, Oct. 14 (July-Aug. 2011 Quick Links, Part 3)
By Eric Goldman Over the past few months, we’ve seen some dramatic–and expensive–evidence that the patent system is out-of-control. Feeling outgunned in the smartphone space by big players with larger patent portfolios, Google has been on the prowl for bulk…
Blogger Can Display County Seal in Blog Posts–Rothamel v. Fluvanna County
By Eric Goldman Rothamel v. Fluvanna County, Va., 2011 WL 3878313 (W.D. Va. Sept. 2, 2011) I don’t use images on this blog, but many bloggers include images to help illustrate their posts. It’s not uncommon, then, for bloggers to…