Trademark Owner Sues Over Alleged Twittersquatting–Coventry First, LLC v. Does
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Coventry First, LLC v. Does, 11-cv-03700-JS (complaint filed June 7, 2011) The last big tussle over twittersquatting, and infringement through use of a trademark or name in a twitter handle was between Tony La Russa and…
Forum Selection Clause in “Submerged” Terms of Service Presumptively Unenforceable — Hoffman v. Supplements Togo
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Hoffman v. Supplements Togo Mgmt. LLC, A-5022-09T3 (N.J. Ct. App.; May 13, 2011) Plaintiff who happened to be a lawyer brought putative class claims against Supplements Togo, alleging that the “Erection MD” “dietary supplement” sold via…
NebuAd Deep Packet Inspection Lawsuits Sputter — Deering v. CenturyTel & Green v. Cable One
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] The alleged monitoring and use of ISP subscribers’ internet activity for advertisement targeting purposes by NebuAd spawned a slew of class actions. NebuAd shut down, leaving plaintiffs to go after the individual ISPs who partnered with…
Yahoo! Entitled to Immunity for Disclosing User Information in Response to Subpoena — Sams v. Yahoo!
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Sams v. Yahoo!, Inc., CV-10-5897-JF(HRL) (N.D. Cal.; May 18, 2011) Fayelynn Sams sued Yahoo!, contending that Yahoo! improperly produced information in response to a subpoena which requested information regarding Sams’s account. She brought a putative class…
Ninth Circuit: FACTA Does not Cover Emailed Receipts — Simonoff v. Expedia
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Simonoff v. Expedia, No. 10-35595 (9th Cir.; May 24, 2011) FACTA is a statute which requires merchants to truncate the customer’s credit card information on receipts that are “electronically printed.” Plaintiffs have brought claims against online…
Ohio Appeals Court: GoDaddy can be Held Liable for Wrongly Transferring Control Over Domain Name and Email Accounts — Eysoldt v. ProScan
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Eysoldt v. GoDaddy, et al., C-100528 (Ohio Ct. App.; May 18, 2011) Actions against registrars for allowing domain names to be wrongly transferred have been relatively rare. Members of the Eysoldt family brought claims against GoDaddy…
College Course Description Aggregator Loses First Round in Fight Against Competitor in Scraping Case — CollegeSource v. AcademyOne
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments by Eric] CollegeSource, Inc. v. AcademyOne, Inc., 10-3542 (E.D. Pa.; Apr. 22, 2011) This is a scraping case between CollegeSource and its competitor AcademyOne. It looks like it’s part of a long running dispute…
Massachusetts Supreme Court Finds Email Sufficiently Authenticated Based on Surrounding Evidence — Commonwealth v. Purdy
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Commonwealth v. Purdy, 2011 WL 1421367 (Mass.; Apr. 15, 2011) Defendant was prosecuted and convicted for maintaining a house of prostitution and deriving support from the earnings of a prostitute. The trial judge admitted various emails…
Court Allows Fair Credit Reporting Act Claims Against Spokeo to Move Forward — Robins v. Spokeo
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments from Eric] Robins v. Spokeo, No. CV10 05306 ODW (AGRx) (C.D. Cal.; May 11, 2011) I previously blogged about Spokeo, which is being sued for disseminating reports which allegedly contain inaccurate information about plaintiff….
Plaintiff Can’t be Forced to Accept Defense Counsel’s Facebook Friend Request in Personal Injury Case — Piccolo v. Paterson
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Piccolo v. Paterson, No. 2009-04979 (Pa. Ct of Common Pleas; May 5, 2011) [.pdf] In addition to cases dealing with whether Facebook posts are discoverable in civil cases, courts and litigants continue to grapple with the…