Terminated eBay Vendor Gets Day in Court Against eBay–Crawford v. Consumer Depot
By Eric Goldman Crawford v. Consumer Depot, Inc., 05-3242 (Tenn. County Ct. Dec. 9, 2009) Essex and Consumer Depot are competitors in the eBay consignment business. According to the court, prior to 2005 Essex used to allow its employees to…
512(f) Claim Dismissed on Jurisdictional Grounds–Project DoD v. Federici
By Eric Goldman Project DOD, Inc. v. Federici, 2009 WL 4910320 (D. Me. Dec. 13, 2009) 17 USC 512(f) creates a cause of action for sending bogus copyright takedown notices. In a regulatory environment where service providers have itchy trigger…
Torrent Sites Induce Infringement and Lose DMCA Safe Harbor–Columbia v. Fung
By Eric Goldman Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., v. Fung, 2:06-cv-05578-SVW-JC (C.D. Cal. Dec. 21, 2009) In a potentially significant ruling that got a little lost in the Christmas rush, a federal district court ruled on summary judgment that the “torrent…
Consumer Review Website Wins 230 Dismissal in Fourth Circuit–Nemet Chevrolet v. ConsumerAffairs.com
By Eric Goldman Nemet Chevrolet Ltd. v. ConsumerAffairs.com, Inc., 2009 WL 5126224 (4th Cir. Dec. 29, 2009) Introduction Citing 47 USC 230, today the Fourth Circuit upheld a 12(b)(6) dismissal of defamation and related claims against a consumer review website….
Pharma Company Avoids Injunction By Dropping Competitive Keyword Ads–King v. ZymoGenetics
By Eric Goldman King Pharmaceuticals, Inc., v ZymoGenetics, Inc., 2009 WL 4931238 (E.D. Tenn. Dec. 10, 2009). Seattle Trademark Lawyer has some background. This case involves the cutthroat (sorry) world of blood clotting drugs. King Pharmaceuticals sells bovine (cow) thrombin,…
November-December 2009 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman Copyright * Want Ad Digest Inc. v. Display Advertising Inc. (N.D.N.Y. Sept. 3, 2009). A classified ads publisher wants to stop a competitor from republishing its classified ads. The court said that advertisers, not the publisher, generally…
November-December 2009 Quick Links, Part 1
By Eric Goldman Trademarks/Domain Names * Yahoo and Mary Kay settled Mary Kay’s trademark lawsuit over Yahoo’s email shortcuts. * uBID Inc. v. The GoDaddy Group Inc., No. 09-cv-2123 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 5, 2009). uBid’s anti-domain name parking lawsuit failed…
Ripoff Report Not Bound by Takedown Injunction Against User–Blockowicz v. Williams
By Eric Goldman Blockowicz v. Williams, 1:09-cv-03955 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 21, 2009) Last month, I wrote about the interaction between 47 USC 230 and FRCP 65. FRCP 65 says that anyone acting in concert with a litigant is obligated to…
Website Initially Denied 230 Dismissal But Gets It on Appeal–Shiamili v. Real Estate Group
By Eric Goldman Shiamili v. Real Estate Group of New York, Inc., 2009 WL 4842470 (N.Y. App. Div. Dec. 17, 2009) Unfortunately, I am only working from a short and opaque appellate memo. It appears that the defendant operated a…
Barnes v. Yahoo Survives Dismissal Motion on Remand
By Eric Goldman Barnes v. Yahoo!, Inc., 2009 WL 4823840 (D. Or. Dec. 11, 2009) You recall Barnes v. Yahoo, the case where Yahoo promised to promptly take down a fake profile created by a third party but didn’t do…