9th Cir. Smacks Down AOL’s Advertising.com Trademark as Likely Generic — Advertise.com v. AOL
[Post by Venkat] Advertise.com, Inc. v. AOL Advertising, Inc., Case No. 10-55069 (9th Cir; Aug 3, 2010). The Ninth Circuit handed AOL a preliminary trademark loss, finding that ADVERTISING.COM is likely generic for internet advertising services. Background: AOL owned trademark…
Baidu Can Maintain Negligence Claims Against Register.com for Lax Security Practices Which Allegedly Facilitated Cyber-Attack – Baidu v. Register.com
[Post by Venkat] Baidu, Inc. v. Register.com, Inc., Case no. 10 Civ. 444 (DC) (S.D.N.Y.) (July 22, 2010). Background: Baidu registered the domain name with Register.com, a domain name registrar, which provided Baidu with “Internet traffic routing services.” A third…
Facebook’s Anti-Spam Filter Blocks Legitimate Conversations about Power.com
By Eric Goldman On Friday, Venkat and I posted about the latest ruling in Facebook v. Power.com. After Venkat or I make a blog post, I typically post the blog headline and URL to Twitter. I have enabled the app…
Funky Ninth Circuit Opinion on Domain Names and Nominative Use–Toyota v. Tabari
By Eric Goldman Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. v. Tabari, 2010 WL 2680891 (9th Cir. July 8, 2010) Every time I see a federal appellate opinion on domain names, I’m vaguely reminded of the Country Joe song I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag, whose…
Griper Gets Attorneys’ Fees After Successful Defense–Career Agents v. Careeragentsnetwork.biz
By Eric Goldman Career Agents Network, Inc. v. Careeragentsnetwork.biz, 2010 WL 2632298 (E.D. Mich. June 29, 2010). The CMLP page. The underlying dispute involves a non-commercial gripe site. The trademark owner sells a type of “business in a box” (like…
Puzzling 9th Circuit Dilution Opinion Over eVisa.com–Visa v. JSL
By Eric Goldman VISA International Service Ass’n v. JSL Corp., No. 08-15206 (9th Cir. June 28, 2010) A number of us in the trademark community are scratching our heads at last week’s Ninth Circuit trademark dilution opinion, authored by Judge…
Google Can’t Shake Cybersquatting Claim–Vulcan Golf v. Google
By Eric Goldman Vulcan Golf, LLC v. Google Inc., 1:07-cv-03371 (N.D. Ill. June 9, 2010). My 2007 blog post when the complaint was filed. My 2008 blog post on the denial of a motion to dismiss. My 2008 blog post…
Geographic Trademark Leads to Interesting (& Tortured) Injunction–Skydive Arizona v. Quattrocchi
By Eric Goldman Skydive Arizona, Inc. v. Quattrocchi, 2010 WL 1743189 (D. Ariz. April 29, 2010). A jury found that the defendants had committed trademark infringement, false advertising and cybersquatting and awarded $2.5M in damages, which the judge doubled. Unfortunately,…
Ninth Circuit Applies California law to Domain Name Ownership Dispute and Remands for Determination of Whether “Innocent Purchaser” Defense Applies — CRS Recovery, Inc. v. Laxton
[Post by Venkat] CRS Recovery, Inc. v. Laxton, 9th Cir. (April 6, 2010). Background: Mayberry registered rl.com through Network Solutions in 1995. At the time, mat.net was also registered to him. Mayberry provided dale@mat.net as the email address for the…
March 2010 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Internet Exceptionalism * Stern v. Sony Corp., CV 09-7710 PA (C.D. Cal. Feb. 8 2010) “to the extent Plaintiff is suing Sony as a manufacturer of video games, and the provider of online services, Sony is not…