1H 2021 Quick Links, Part 1 (IP)
Trademarks and Domain Names * Kid Car NY, LLC v. Kidmoto Techs. LLC, 2021 WL 466975 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 9, 2021): “At the motion to dismiss stage, Kidmoto has plausibly alleged more than just the purchase of a competitor’s mark as…
Ohio Bans Competitive Keyword Advertising by Lawyers
No one: Absolutely no one: Ohio Board of Professional Conduct (in the third decade of the 21st century….): * * * I guess we’re doing this again. It’s 2021, long past the time consumers have come to understand competitive keyword…
Florida Hits a New Censorial Low in Internet Regulation (Comments on SB 7072)
This blog post reviews Florida’s Transparency in Technology Act, SB 7072. Like other recent efforts to censor the Internet (such as Trump’s anti-230 EO), this law is performative garbage. It was never a serious attempt at crafting good policy. Florida…
What Would Happen If Search Engines Had to Give Higher Visibility to Less Relevant Results?
I’m reporting on a study by Bin Han, Chirag Shah, and Daniel Saelid called “Users’ Perception of Search Engine Biases and Satisfaction.” The authors showed two pages of Bing results to study participants. (An aside: Bing…really?) The first page was…
Selling Keyword Ads Isn’t Theft or Conversion–Edible IP v. Google
It’s been years since I’ve blogged a lawsuit against Google for selling trademarked keyword ads. About a decade ago, Google was dealing with about a dozen cases. Google won some of them and settled the rest, and everyone moved on….
Google Isn’t Liable for Allegedly Problematic Search Results–Diez v. Google
Diez claims to be a “naturist” (note: these facts are taken from Diez’s complaint). He conducted Google image searches for the keywords “family naturist females,” “family naturist girls,” “family nudist females,” and “family nudist girls.” [PLEASE DO NOT INDEPENDENTLY INVESTIGATE…
Competitive Keyword Advertising Still Isn’t Trademark Infringement, Unless…. –Adler v. Reyes & Adler v. McNeil
Competitive keyword advertising lawsuits are still stupid, and they are still typically doomed in court. This is especially true in keyword advertising disputes between rival lawyers, something that I spoke out against in 2016. Despite that, one of these two…
Three Keyword Advertising Decisions in a Week, and the Trademark Owners Lost Them All
If you are a trademark owner suing over competitive keyword ads, you are almost certainly making a bad business decision, and your attorney might be milking your bank account. If you are an attorney representing a trademark owner in a…
Unhappy Google Advertiser’s Lawsuit Completely Falls Apart–Dreamstime v. Google
This is one of several lawsuits by unhappy Google advertisers, each claiming that Google screwed them out of Google’s self-interest. (A reminder that advertisers always feel screwed because they believe they deserve more customers for less money). Anti-Google lawsuits tend…
2H 2019 and Q1 2020 Quick Links, Part 7 (Content Moderation, Censorship, Defamation, & More)
Content Moderation * The Verge: The Terror Queue: These moderators help keep Google and YouTube free of violent extremism — and now some of them have PTSD * The Intercept: Trauma Counselors Were Pressured to Divulge Confidential Information About Facebook…