Law Student Can’t Enforce Defense Lawyer’s “Prove-Me-Wrong” Promise in TV Interview
This is a fun case! Serrano was accused of murdering (in 1997) four people in central Florida. The trial attracted publicity, and his defense lawyer Mason fought the case in the court of public opinion as well as in court….
H2 2013 Quick Links, Part 4 (Social Media, Advertising, E-Commerce)
Facebook * MarketingLand’s coverage of Facebook’s increasingly complicated algorithm for ranking news feed stories. * People v. DeJesus, 2013 WL 6327657 (Cal. App. Ct. Dec. 4, 2013): As for defendant’s claim about an Internet posting to a group as potentially violating the trial court’s…
Top Ten Internet Law Developments Of 2013 (Forbes Cross-Post)
A look back at the Internet law highlights of 2013: #10: Copyright Defendants Get High-Stakes Wins. 2013 saw several copyright defendants win long-running litigation affairs–and potentially crack open new markets, including (1) Google’s stirring win in its nearly decade-long Google…
Protip: Don’t Send Emails Threatening to “Inflict the Maximum Amount of Financial Pain” Allowed By Law
Dr. Karan wanted to open a call center in India to assist doctors in handling patient calls. He entered into agreements with Computech and mLogica, two entities owned by his childhood friend, Amit Okhandiar. Under the agreement, the two entities…
Details About Amazon’s Confidential Settlement Terms For A Keyword Advertising Lawsuit (Forbes Cross-Post)
Most lawsuits settle; and most settlements are confidential. As a result, outsiders often don’t learn who “won” a settled lawsuit or the range of standard settlement terms. Fortunately, a dispute over the settlement agreement in a keyword advertising trademark lawsuit…
Florida Drops Ill-Conceived Proposal To Ban Competitive Keyword Advertising By Lawyers (Forbes Cross-Post)
In March, the Florida State Bar’s Standing Committee on Advertising proposed an ethics opinion (Proposed Advisory Opinion A-12-1). The opinion was designed to help Florida lawyers understand what they could ethically do with online marketing. It targeted a melange of…
National Advertising Division (NAD) Doesn’t Consider Section 230 Defenses
In October, I spoke at the National Advertising Division’s (NAD) annual conference on a panel about Section 230 and advertiser liability for user-generated content (UGC). [Sorry for my delay posting this recap]. A paradigmatic example is a Facebook brand page…
![Keyword Advertising Lawsuits Against Search Engines Mostly Tossed--Parts[.]com v. Google and Yahoo](https://blog.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/shutterstock_1174959402-150x150.jpg)
Keyword Advertising Lawsuits Against Search Engines Mostly Tossed–Parts[.]com v. Google and Yahoo
I know of only two pending trademark lawsuits against search engines for selling trademarked keywords: Parts.com and Carla Ison. Ison’s lawsuit has been dismissed and is on appeal, where it will be crushed. This week, Parts.com’s lawsuits against Google and…
Previewing Lexmark vs Static Control, A Rare Supreme Court Case On False Advertising (Forbes Cross-Post)
[Introductory note: Today the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Lexmark v. Static Controls case. The transcript. Yesterday at Forbes, I posted a case preview. I’m sharing that here with you now; it’s still useful context-setting for the oral…
Privacy Plaintiffs Lose Because They Didn’t Rely on Apple’s Privacy Representations — In re iPhone App Litigation
Plaintiffs sued Apple claiming they relied on privacy representations from Apple and that the iOS environment was designed to “easily” allow for transmission of user information to third parties. A separate sub-class alleged that Apple collected location information even when…