This appears to be a SAD Scheme case involving Squishmallows, a stuffed animals brand. The brand owner, Kelly Toys, sued 90 e-commerce merchants in a sealed complaint and got a TRO. For unclear reasons, Kelly Toys expanded the litigation to…
This case (like many I’m covering nowadays) involves heartbreaking facts, but from a legal standpoint, it was never meritorious. Doe created a Grindr account at age 15 (Doe claimed he was 18). He matched with 4 men. “Doe met each…
* For over a decade, I’ve implored people to stop using the term “Soft IP.” Amanda Levendowski now provides another reason: the term has problematic gender implications. * After II Movie, LLC v. Grande Communications Networks, LLC, 2023 WL 1422808…
[My Quick Links publication process is broken. Once-a-year postings aren’t very useful LOL.] * Palmer v. Savoy, 2021 N.C. Super. LEXIS 236 (N.C. Superior Ct. July 28, 2021). Snap qualified for Section 230 protection despite the plaintiffs’ invocation of the Lemmon design…
I previously covered the district court ruling in this case. I summarized: A high school teacher allegedly used Snapchat to groom a sophomore student for a sexual relationship. (Atypically, the teacher was female and the victim was male, but the…
This is a FOSTA case. All FOSTA cases are very complicated. (Indeed, almost all of the opinion is spent explaining the background). If you’re new to FOSTA cases and you are baffled by the layers of inferences and arguments here,…
Strachan created various Facebook pages and an advertising account. “In April 2020, Facebook cancelled Strachan’s advertising account and removed his advertising content from the platform.” Allegedly, Facebook “determined he was selling ‘Adult Services and/or Products,’ i.e., ‘sex products.’” To make…
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy Many characterize the law of copyright preemption of contracts as a circuit split. But that undersells the level of inconsistency in courts’ interpretations of the law of copyright preemption. It’s not that half of federal…
Every SAD Scheme lawsuit is problematic, though the specific reasons may differ. Each lawsuit creates dozens or hundreds of individual dramas, few of which receive any public scrutiny, and usually comes at the cost of due process and the rule…
by guest blogger Christine Haight Farley Because it is grading season, when I read the Second Circuit’s per curiam decision in Vans, Inc. v. MSCHF Prod. Studio, Inc., 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 32063 (2d Cir. 2023), I already had my red grading…