Constitutional Challenge to FOSTA Dismissed for Lack of Standing (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Alex F. Levy On September 24, 2018, the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia dismissed a case challenging the constitutionality of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA). FOSTA, which…
Google Successfully Amends Its AdWords TOS to Add Arbitration Clause–Trudeau v. Google
Some AdWords advertisers are suing Google for allegedly misimplementing negative keywords. Google seeks to move the dispute to arbitration. In 2013, Google’s AdWords TOS said: 11 Term. Google may add to, delete from or modify these Terms at any time…
Blogger Defeats Defamation Claims Over Posts Claiming a “Scam”–RainSoft v. MacFarland
Brian MacFarland runs a blog, lazymanandmoney.com. For his own home, he held an in-home demonstration of a RainSoft water softener system by Oster, a salesperson at a local distributor, Basement Technologies. (I’m not sure about that brand!). MacFarland was skeptical…
Section 230 Helps Malware Vendor Avoid Liability for Blocking Decision–PC Drivers v. Malwarebytes
We rarely see cases like this any more, so I think it’s worth blogging this April ruling even though it just showed up in Westlaw. PC Drivers makes software designed to speed up users’ computers, an industry niche that’s known…
Departing Employee Required to Transfer Social Media Accounts–Hyperheal Hyperbarics v. Shapiro
This is an ownership dispute over a departing employee’s right to use social media accounts and trademarks of an employer. The facts are somewhat atypical. Shapiro founded a company called Hyperheal Hyperbarics to provide “hyperbaric oxygen therapy”. In 2014, the…
Roca Labs’ Anti-Review Clause Violates FTC Act–FTC v. Roca Labs
Good news: a court ruled that Roca Labs anti-review clause violates the law. It’s shocking that Roca Labs chose to defend this practice in court, so it’s not surprising that the judge didn’t endorse it. Bad news: the court relied…
Another Failed Trademark Suit Over Competitive Keyword Advertising–JIVE v. Wine Racks America
The parties compete in the wine rack/wine cellar business. The defendant bought the plaintiff’s trademarks for keyword ads. The plaintiff alleges this creates initial interest confusion. The 10th Circuit’s Lens.com ruling governs this case. The court says that case makes…
Twitter Gets Powerful Win in “Must-Carry” Lawsuit–Taylor v. Twitter
This is one of several lawsuits brought by disseminators of anti-social content (in this case, white supremacist content) seeking to prevent social media providers from cutting them off. In June, the lower court surprisingly rejected Twitter’s dismissal motion for the…
Negative Keywords Help Defeat Preliminary Injunction–DealDash v. ContextLogic
DealDash and Wish are e-commerce vendors. For a while, Wish offered a service called “Deal Dash” for time-limited bargains. Immediately after DealDash sued, Wish renamed its service “Bargain Blitz” and pulled the “DealDash” term from all advertising. DealDash still pressed…
An Update on the Constitutional Court Challenge to FOSTA–Woodhull Freedom v. US (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Alex F. Levy Following the initial filings in Woodhull v. Sessions (summarized here), defendants filed a combined opposition to the motion for preliminary injunction and motion to dismiss (Dkt #16) on July 12th, 2018. Plaintiffs then filed…