Google Defeats Trademark Challenge to Its AdWords Service–Jurin v. Google (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Jurin v. Google, Inc., 2012 WL 5011007 (E.D. Cal. October 17, 2012). Google ($GOOG) makes billions of dollars a year selling AdWords ads triggered by third party trademarks. Over the past decade, trademark owners have brought about 20…
Q3 2012 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks/Domain Names, Patents, Trade Secrets)
By Eric Goldman and Jake McGowan Trademarks/Domain Names * AdAge: “Consumers Don’t Really Know Who Sponsors the Olympics.” This reminds us that trying to protect against “sponsorship confusion” is futile. For example: 16% believed Google sponsors the Olympics; and of…
Battle Over LinkedIn Account Between Employer and Employee Largely Gutted–Eagle v. Morgan
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] Eagle v. Morgan, 2012 WL 4739436 (E.D. Pa.; Oct. 4, 2012) We’ve repeatedly posted about employer-employee (or ex-employee) disputes involving social media accounts (PhoneDog; Maremont; Kremer; Insynq). Eagle v. Morgan is in…
Latest “Hot Topics in Internet Law” Talk Slides
By Eric Goldman Earlier this month, I spoke at the “IP and the Internet” conference sponsored by the California State Bar’s IP Section on the perennial favorite topic, “Hot Topics in Internet Law.” My talk slides. Given the conference’s theme,…
Cafepress Suffers Potentially Significant Trademark Loss for Users’ Uploaded Designs (Forbes Cross-Post)
Cafepress.com ($PRSS) provides a popular user-to-user marketplace websites that allows users to upload logos or slogans and sell items bearing those logos or slogans, which Cafepress.com manufactures on demand (a so-called “print-on-demand” service). Like any other user-generated content website, there’s always…
Newly Released Consumer Survey Indicates that Legal Concerns About Competitive Keyword Advertising Are Overblown (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman Competitive keyword advertising—buying ads triggered by a keyword search for a competitor’s trademarks at venues like Google AdWords, Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing—has generated enormous legal angst over the past decade, including hundreds of law review articles, occasional…
Amazon.com’s Anti-Counterfeiting Efforts Blessed by California Appellate Court (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman A California appellate court has blessed Amazon.com’s ($AMZN) efforts to police counterfeit goods sold by its third party merchants. This is especially good news for Amazon because the leading precedent on the topic had blessed eBay’s ($EBAY)…
Six-Month Retrospective of SOPA’s Demise [Forbes Cross-Post, A Month Late!] + SOPA/PROTECT-IP/OPEN Linkwrap #3
By Eric Goldman [This post is composed of three parts. The first part, all 2,700 words of it, is a cross-post from Forbes last month assessing where we stood 6 months after January 18, 2012. Sorry it’s taken me so…
No Liability for Takedown Notice that Results in Termination of Facebook Page — Lown Cos. v. Piggy Paint
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] Lown Companies v. Piggy Paint, LLC, 1:11-cv-911 (W.D. Mich.; Aug. 9, 2012) Lown and Piggy Paint are squabbling over “piggy paint” trademarks. Lown has a registration for “PIGGY POLISH,” and alleges that…
What Are Trademark Defendants’ Obligations to Clean Up the Internet After a Trademark Injunction?
By Eric Goldman We’re continuing to get cases interpreting a defendant’s obligation after a court has issued an injunction against continuing to use a trademark. (The same basic issue arises after a settlement agreement). I don’t know that we have…