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…
Why Defensive Domain Name Registrations Aren’t a Good Deal for Small Businesses (Forbes Cross-Post)
By Eric Goldman [Introductory note: every article has a backstory, but some backstories are more complicated than others. Earlier this year, I was commissioned by a well-known publication to participate in a point/counterpoint regarding registering domain names in new TLDs….
PissedConsumer Defeats Trademark Claim…On a Motion to Dismiss!?–deVere v. Opinion Corp.
By Eric Goldman deVere Group GmbH v. Opinion Corp., 2012 WL 2884986 (E.D.N.Y. July 13, 2012) Here’s something you don’t see every day: a trademark infringement lawsuit defeated for lack of consumer confusion–on a 12b6 motion to dismiss. For several…
Google Sued Again for AdWords Trademark Infringement–Home Decor Center v. Google
By Eric Goldman Home Decor Center v. Google, CV12-05706 (C.D. Cal. notice of removal filed July 2, 2012) After the 4th Circuit’s Rosetta Stone v. Google ruling, I wrote: Just like Google got hit with over a dozen lawsuits in…
H1 2012 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks/Domain Names, Patents, Trade Secrets, IP)
By Eric Goldman [Eric’s note: I had an incredibly busy travel schedule since late March. My destinations included Akron, NYC, Seattle, Concord (NH), Boston, Chicago, Vancouver, the California Channel Islands (a blog post is coming later this week about that…