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…
Top Cyberlaw Developments of 2009
By John E. Ottaviani (Thanks to Eric for letting me post this list here!) [Eric’s note: some of you may recall John, a regular blog guest contributor from 2005-07. It’s great to have another contribution from him.] Eric will post…
Another Cautionary Tale of Joint Website Ownership–TEG v. Phelps [UPDATED]
By Eric Goldman Third Education Group, Inc. v. Phelps, 675 F. Supp. 2d 916 (E.D. Wis. Nov. 25, 2009). Motion to amend denied January 19, 2010. [UPDATE: In the initial version of this post, Richard Phelps’ story was part of…
Case Western “Signifiers in Cyberspace” Conference Recap
By Eric Goldman In mid-November, I attended a conference at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio entitled “Signifiers in Cyberspace: Domain Names & Online Trademarks.” My notes: David Fewer spoke about Canada’s WHOIS policy. The old…
Internet Obscenity Conviction Requires Assessment of National Community Standards–US v. Kilbride
By Eric Goldman U.S. v. Kilbride, 2009 WL 3448360 (9th Cir. Oct. 28, 2009) Jeffrey Kilbride and James Schaffer were porn spammers, operating through Ganymede Marketing, a Mauritian company. I previously blogged on their case in 2007. Their spam failed…
Tucows Not Liable for Spam Judgment Against 3rd Party Based on Private Registration Services — Balsam v. Tucows
[Post by Venkat] Judge Breyer (N.D. Cal.) rejected an attempt by a spam plaintiff to hold a registrar liable for a judgment against a third party based on private registration services provided by the registrar. (Balsam v. Tucows Inc., et…
Domain Names as Property Subject to Creditor Claims–Bosh v. Zavala
[Post by Venkat] Most people take it for granted that domain names are property. As such, there shouldn’t be much dispute that domain names are subject to the claims of judgment creditors. But I’ve seen enough resistance to this position…
Q3 2009 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman Trademark * Venkat: Twitter makes the dictionary. * Federal Circuit says Hotels.com is generic. * Steve Madden sues eBay for trademark infringement. Marty’s coverage. Justia page. I found the fifth cause of action, “trademark delusion,” a surprisingly…
June 2009 Quick Links, Part 1
By Eric Goldman Just a reminder that I post some items to Twitter that don’t make it into these monthly recaps. If you want even more, you can track a superset of my online activities at Friendfeed. Search Engines *…
Contributory Cybersquatting and the Impending Demise of Domain Name Proxy Services?–Solid Host v. NameCheap
By Eric Goldman Solid Host, NL v. NameCheap, Inc., 2:08-cv-05414-MMM-E (C.D. Cal. May 19, 2009) Facts This case involves an alleged domain name theft. Solid Host is a web host and initial owner of the domain name solidhost.com, which it…