Google’s Latest Attempt to Kill the CLRB Hanson Lawsuit Fails
By Eric Goldman CLRB Hanson Industries, LLC v. Google, Inc., NO. C 05-03649 JW (N.D. Cal. Dec. 16, 2008) CLRB v. Google is the long-running lawsuit (3 1/2 years and counting) over Google’s adherence to advertising limits that advertisers set…
Keyword Ads and Other Marketing Supports Remote Jurisdiction–Market America v. Optihealth
By Eric Goldman Market America v. Optihealth Products, Inc., 2008 WL 5069802 (M.D.N.C. Nov. 21, 2008) This lawsuit involves the trademark “OPC-3.” “OPC” is the generic term for “group of antioxidant bioflavonoids” that companies sell as dietary supplements. The plaintiff…
Search Engines Aren’t Liable for Gambling Ads Per 230–Cisneros v. Yahoo
By Eric Goldman Cisneros v. Yahoo, CGC-04-433518 (Cal. Superior Ct. “Tentative Trial Decision” Nov. 6, 2008) I am frequently asked if 47 USC 230 protects websites for claims based on the ads they run. My answer is emphatically “yes” unless…
October 2008 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman Spam * Kramer v. Perez. An Iowa court awards $236M in damages in a spam case. Venkat’s comments. * After the government lost its jury trial against Impulse Media, the court denied Impulse Media attorneys fees. Contracts…
Yellow Pages Publisher Hit with $1.5M Fraud Judgment for Publishing False Ad–Knepper v. Brown
By Eric Goldman Knepper v. Brown, CC 9903-02495 (Or. Sup. Ct. Oct. 9, 2008) A woman got a botched liposuction job (which plaintiff’s expert described as an “uncorrectable disaster”) from Dr. Brown, a dermatologist. She sued the dermatologist and Dex,…
Lambotte’s Click Fraud Lawsuit Against IAC Survives Motion to Dismiss
By Eric Goldman Lambotte v. IAC/InterActiveCorp, 2008 WL 4829882 (C.D. Cal. Nov. 4, 2008). Initial blog post on the filing of the first complaint. Lambotte filed this putative class action lawsuit against IAC in May based on alleged click fraud….
CAN-Spam-a-Friend?–Hoang v. Reunion.com
Hoang v. Reunion.com sidesteps an eagerly anticipated legal dispute over the legality of commercial address book scraping and ‘send-to-a-friend’ emails, and also highlights the damage that can cascade when a federal Circuit Court woefully misreads a statute. By Ethan Ackerman…
September 2008 Quick Links, Part 3
By Eric Goldman eBay * Universal Grading Service v. eBay, Inc. More fallout from the National Numismatic v. eBay case–another lawsuit alleging antitrust and defamation because eBay designated some coin rating services as preferred and impliedly devalued others. * Windsor…
Email Ad Network Isn’t Liable for Unsolicited Email–Ferron v. Echostar
By Eric Goldman Ferron v. Echostar Satellite LLC, 2008 WL 4377309 (S.D. Ohio Sept. 24, 2008). The Justia page. John Ferron is one of several “repeat” plaintiffs around the country suing over unsolicited email (perhaps not coincidentally, he’s also an…
Delayed Enforcement Blocks Domain Name Lawsuit–Southern Grouts v. 3M
By Eric Goldman Southern Grouts & Mortars, Inc. v. 3M Co., 2008 WL 4346798 (S.D. Fla. Sept. 17, 2008) I’m often baffled by lawsuits over domain names and keywords because they just don’t seem to make any economic sense. This…