Zango Claims Spyware Doctor SE Surreptitiously Deletes Its Software
By Eric Goldman Zango, Inc. v. PC Tools Pty Ltd., 07-2-15844-8SEA (Wash. Superior Ct. complaint filed May 15, 2007) We’ve seen a fair amount of tussling between adware vendors and anti-spyware software vendors, including a battle over the incorporation of’…
Utah Trademark Protection Act Updates (from BNA)
By Eric Goldman As I previously reported, Utah legislators met with industry representatives to discuss the Utah Trademark Protection Act on April 25. BNA [BNA subscription required] provides a fresh update on developments since the April 25 meeting. According to…
Utah Legislators Realizing They Screwed Up By Banning Keyword Advertising
By Eric Goldman Linda Fantin at the Salt Lake Tribune reports on the meeting between Utah legislators and various technology companies (Google, eBay, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, 1-800 Contacts and Overstock.com) to discuss the recently enacted Utah Trademark Protection Act banning…
Academic Debate over Trademark Use in Commerce
By Eric Goldman As regular blog readers know, a hot area in online trademark law is the “trademark use in commerce” element of the plaintiff’s prima facie case. This element has been dispositive in several noteworthy defense wins, including the…
Keyword Law Talk
By Eric Goldman Tomorrow I’m giving a talk in Dallas entitled “Keyword Law.” In light of the new Utah law, this turns out to be an interesting time to speak on the topic!
Keyword Advertising as Corporate Identity Theft—Sen. Eastman Defends New Utah Law Banning Keyword Advertising
By Eric Goldman Last month, Utah quietly passed SB 236 to outlaw keyword advertising. Last week, SB 236’s sponsor, Sen. Dan Eastman, blogged a defense of the law. I really respect Sen. Eastman for engaging his critics in the blogosphere,…
Utah Bans Keyword Advertising [Updated]
By Eric Goldman Utah SB 236 (the “Trademark Protection Act”), enacted March 19, 2007 Legislators enact stupid laws all of the time, but some laws transcend mere stupidity and produce a single 3 letter response: WTF? And no legislature has…
Miva Securities Litigation Rejects Most Click Fraud/Syndication Fraud Claims
By Eric Goldman In re Miva, Inc. Securities Litigation, 2007 WL 809686 (M.D. Fla. Mar. 15, 2007) Stockholders of Miva (formerly FindWhat) sued Miva, alleging that Miva had inflated its stock price by making false public statements. In this ruling,…
Affiliate Spam Liability is Fact Question–US v. Cyberheat
By Eric Goldman U.S. v. Cyberheat, Inc., 2007 WL 686678 (D. Ariz. March 2, 2007) This case deals with one of the great unresolved Cyberlaw questions: when is an online advertiser liable for the downstream behavior of its media outlets?…
Domain Name Regulation Talk and McGeorge ICANN Conference Recap
By Eric Goldman Yesterday, I went to the McGeorge conference on ICANN and domain names. My slides from my talk entitled Keyword Regulation and Domain Name Exceptionalism. I made the point (first outlined in my Deregulating Relevancy article) that domain…