Guerrilla Marketing Under False Pretenses Might Be Passing Off–Heartland v. Forest River
By Eric Goldman Heartland Recreational Vehicles, LLC v. Forest River, Inc., 2009 WL 418079 (N.D. Ind. Feb. 18, 2009). The Justia page. When deciding whether it should bring a lawsuit, a potential plaintiff needs to consider not only their likelihood…
TradeComet Sues Google for Antitrust Violations
By Eric Goldman TradeComet.com LLC v. Google, Inc., 09 CIV 1400 (SDNY complaint filed Feb. 17, 2009). The Justia page. TradeComet, which operates the SourceTool.com website, has sued Google for a variety of antitrust violations. As is typically the case…
Affiliate Liability Talk Notes from SMX West
By Eric Goldman Last week, I spoke for 10 minutes (actually, I took 12) at SMX West on the topic of advertiser liability for affiliates’ actions. My talk notes: General Principles Issue: when are advertisers liable for their affiliates’ behavior?…
Yahoo’s Sale of Competitive Keyword Ads Isn’t False Designation of Origin–Heartbrand Beef v. Lobel’s
By Eric Goldman Heartbrand Beef, Inc. v. Lobel’s of New York, LLC, 2009 WL 311087 (S.D.Tex. Feb. 5, 2009). The Justia page. Heartbrand sells Akaushi beef, a special and very expensive Japanese variety of beef. Heartbrand brought an enforcement action…
2008 Cyberlaw Year-in-Review
By Eric Goldman It’s a sign of my schedule that I’m just now getting to this, and this post will be more pithy than I initially conceived. This post recaps some of the Cyberlaw highlights from last year. Frankly, the…
Publisher Promising “Visitors” Owes “Visitors,” Not “Unique Visitors”–WebMD v. RDA
By Eric Goldman WebMD, LLC v. RDA Intern., Inc., 2009 WL 175036 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Jan. 6, 2009) It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about a lawsuit between an Internet publisher and advertiser, so you may enjoy this one….
Brand Spillovers Article Now Available
By Eric Goldman I have finally posted my article, Brand Spillovers, to SSRN. It will be published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology later this year. I have blogged about this project several times over the past 4…
Outdated Whois Information Might Lead to False Light Tort–Meyerkord v. Zipatoni
By Eric Goldman Meyerkord v. The Zipatoni Co., 2008 WL 5455718 (Mo. App. Ct. Dec. 23, 2008) It’s a late entry, but this opinion may be a dark horse candidate for the most bizarre case of 2008. Meyerkord was a…
December 2008 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman Social Networking Sites/Cyber-Bullying/Sexual Predation * More on the Lori Drew conviction: – Wired has a tough behind-the-scenes look at the Lori Drew jury deliberations. – The jury instructions – In case you missed it, my special three…
December 2008 Quick Links, Part 1
By Eric Goldman Copyright * Stockwire Research Group, Inc. v. Lebed, 577 F .Supp. 2d 1262 (S.D. Fla. Sept. 18, 2008). $2.5M default judgment for violation of anti-circumvention provisions. * The RIAA announced that it is shifting away from suing…