Two Regressive Search Engine Advertising Rulings–Standard Process v. Total Health and Finance Express v. Nowcom
By Eric Goldman It’s not uncommon for courts to make judgments based on outdated understandings of precedent and technology, especially when dealing with dynamically evolving areas like Internet trademark law. Nevertheless, it can be a little dispiriting to read opinions…
June 2008 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Trademarks/Domain Names * Utah Lighthouse Ministry v. Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, 2008 WL 22043807 (10th Cir. May 29, 2008). CMLP writeup. Nice 10th Circuit win for a gripe site against trademark infringement and cybersquatting. This…
“Duck Tours” Is Generic–Boston Duck Tours v. Super Duck Tours
By Eric Goldman Boston Duck Tours LP v. Super Duck Tours LLC, 2008 WL 2444480 (1st Cir. June 18, 2008) I previously blogged on this dispute in December. The case involved the defendant’s purchase of keyword advertising triggered by the…
Keyword Metatags and Keyword-Triggered Ads Don’t Create Initial Interest Confusion–Designer Skin v. S&L Vitamins
By Eric Goldman Designer Skin, LLC v. S & L Vitamins, Inc., 2008 WL 2116646 (D. Ariz. May 20, 2008) An Arizona district court has ruled that the surreptitious use of trademarks doesn’t create a likelihood of initial interest confusion,…
May 2008 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks/Domain Names Edition)
By Eric Goldman * Syncsort Inc. v. Innovative Routines Intern., Inc., 2008 WL 1925304 (D.N.J. April 30, 2008). Including a third party trademark in a keyword metatag qualified as nominative use. (Along the same lines, see the Designer Skin case…
Connecticut Blogger Not Subject to Texas Jurisdiction–Healix Infusion v. Helix Health
By Eric Goldman Healix Infusion Therapy, Inc. v. Helix Health, LLC, 2008 WL 1883546 (S.D. Tex. Apr 25, 2008) I’ve mentioned before that I try to avoid blogging about Internet jurisdictional cases, but occasionally an interesting jurisdictional case comes along….
Keyword Law Talk at MLRC
By Eric Goldman Last week I spoke at the Legal Frontiers in Digital Media conference at Stanford, organized by the Media Law Resource Center. The topic was online advertising, and I was allotted 10 minutes to recap the state of…
Lifestyle Lift v. RealSelf Settles
By Eric Goldman In early March, I blogged on Lifestyle Lift’s trademark infringement lawsuit against RealSelf based on user criticisms of Lifestyle Lift. This lawsuit was noteworthy on at least two fronts. First, it was a prime example of a…
April 2008 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Anti-Gaming * Even though Ticketmaster won its lawsuit, Minnesota overreacted to the Hannah Montana ticket crush by banning software to circumvent an online ticket allocation process. See Sec. 609.806. Check out the hyperbole in this press release!…
Injunction Requires Negative Keywords in Future Adwords Campaigns
By Eric Goldman Orion Bancorp Inc. v. Orion Residential Finance LLC, 2008 WL 816794 (M.D. Fla. March 25, 2008). It looks like courts/lawyers are finally getting savvier about broad matching (see my previous blogging on the legal understanding of broad…