Iowa Offers Tax Breaks to “Web Search Portal Businesses”
By Eric Goldman Iowa, showing its technological savvy, has passed a law providing some tax abatements for “web search portal businesses” that invest $200M in the state in 6 years. See HF 2233, enacted Feb. 28, 2008. Most industry participants…
Utah Quietly Killing the Trademark Protection Act [UPDATED]
By Eric Goldman [See update below] We’re coming up on the one year anniversary of the Utah Trademark Protection Act, Utah’s effort to kill/tax keyword advertising. It looks like the law may not survive until its first birthday, as the…
Feb. 2008 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Advertising * BusinessWeek: Monetizing social networking sites isn’t as easy as everyone had hoped, clickthrough rates are through the floor (0.04%!), and ad proliferation on the sites is driving users away. * Wilbur, Kenneth C. and Zhu,…
Rescuecom v. Google Oral Arguments Finally Calendared
By Eric Goldman You may recall Rescuecom v. Google, where the district court dismissed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Google for selling trademarked keywords because the sales lacked the requisite use in commerce. We are all watching this case closely…
Click Fraud Talk at SMX West
By Eric Goldman At SMX West, I participated on a panel about recent search engine law developments with Clarke Walton, Sarah Bird and Jeffrey Rohrs as moderator. Jeff asked me to address click fraud developments, so here’s a recap of…
Third Circuit Says Google Isn’t State Actor–Jayne v. Google Founders
By Eric Goldman Jayne v. Google Internet Search Engine Founders, No. 07-4083 (3rd Cir. Feb. 7, 2008) You may recall Jayne v. Google Founders, one of several wacky pro se lawsuits filed against Google last summer. When I first saw…
Kentucky Court Votes Keyword Ads = TM Use in Commerce–TDI v. Golf Preservations
By Eric Goldman T.D.I. International, Inc. v. Golf Preservations, Inc., 2008 WL 294531 (E.D. Ky. Jan. 31, 2008) In a thinly reasoned opinion with meager facts, a Kentucky federal court meekly voted that keyword advertising is a trademark use in…
ABA IP Section Quietly Considering Anti-Consumer Proposals to Regulate Keyword Advertising
By Corynne McSherry and Eric Goldman [Eric’s note: this is a bit of an unusual post for this blog, as it is being simultaneously posted both here and on the EFF Deep Links site] The tussle over keyword advertising has…
1-800 Contacts Sues LensWorld for Keyword Advertising
By Eric Goldman 1-800 Contacts, Inc. v. LensWorld.com, Inc., 2:08-cv-00015-SA (D. Utah complaint filed Jan. 8, 2008) My my, look who’s decided to go back into court! It’s none other than 1-800 Contacts, the online retailer with a lousy trademark…
December 2007 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Marketing * I’ve blogged about Various, which operates AdultFriendFinder.com, before. They made the news recently in two ways. First, they sold to Penthouse for half-a-billion dollars. Second, they settled with the FTC for “pelting” users with unwanted…