In Facebook’s Lawsuit Against Alleged Spammer, Court Denies MaxBounty’s Motion to Dismiss
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Facebook v. MaxBounty, 10-Cv-04712 (N.D. Cal. Sept 14, 2011) Facebook is suing MaxBounty for allegedly running an affiliate network which dupes people into fanning Facebook pages, promoting the page to their friends, and signing up for…
Lawyer Hit With $4.2 Million Judgment in Junk Fax Class Action — Holtzman v. Turza
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Holtzman v. Turza, 08 C 2014 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 29, 2011) Apparently reports of the fax machine’s death are greatly exaggerated. People still use fax machines. Holtzman sued Turza for receiving unsolicited faxes. The court certified…
Reflections on the DOJ-Google Half-Billion Deal over Illegal Pharma Ads (July-August 2011 Quick Links, Part 2)
By Eric Goldman I haven’t previously written on the DOJ’s bust of Google over illegal pharmaceutical ads, partially because I couldn’t reconcile my views about this enforcement action. From my vantage point, this action equally fits into two dichotomous stories,…
Court Invalidates Agreement Governing Toyota’s Online Prank Contest — Duick v. Toyota
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Duick v. Toyota, B224839 (Ca Ct. App.; Aug. 31, 2011) Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi ran a marketing campaign where a visitor to the Toyota Matrix website could designate a separate person who would receive prank…
Google Gets a Good Win in the MyTriggers Lawsuit
By Eric Goldman BFS Finance v. My Triggers Co., 09CV-14836 (Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Aug. 31, 2011) This lawsuit started all so innocently. It was just a routine collections matter against MyTriggers, an AdWords advertiser, for a few…
Pillow Pets Knockoff Enjoined from Keyword Advertising–CJ Products v Snuggly Plushez
By Eric Goldman CJ Products LLC v. Snuggly Plushez LLC, 2011 WL 3667750 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 22, 2011) Pillow Pets are cuddly and soft, but if you make knockoff versions of them, be prepared to meet the sharp end of their…
New Advertising & Marketing Law Casebook Available for Review
By Eric Goldman For the past 2+ years, Rebecca Tushnet and I have been writing a brand-new casebook on Advertising & Marketing Law. Although some advertising/marketing law textbooks cater to undergraduate classes (such as those in journalism schools, marketing departments…
Claims Against Mylife.com for Allegedly Luring Users to Sign up Using “Your Friend is Looking for you” Emails Proceed — Clerkin v. Mylife
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Clerkin v. Mylife.com, C 11-00527 CW (N.D. Cal. Aug 15, 2011) I do not understand the lure of the “your friend is looking for you . . . sign up to our network to find out…
Google Gets Default Injunction Against AdWord Gamers–Google v. Jackman
By Eric Goldman Google v. Jackman, 2011 WL 3267907 (N.D. Cal. July 28, 2011) This is a default ruling, so the facts are based on Google’s allegations. The defendants ran AdWords campaigns for online pharmacies that sold anabolic steroids. This…
Newspaper’s Discussion About Trademark Owner Protected as Nominative Use–1 800 GET THIN v. Hiltzik
By Eric Goldman 1 800 GET THIN v. Hiltzik, 2:11-cv-00505-ODW -E (C.D. Cal. July 25, 2011) I’m sure any trademark experts reading this post are scratching their heads at the blog post title. Newspapers discussing a trademarked product qualify for…