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…
By Guest Blogger Marketa Trimble Twitter’s General Counsel announced last week that the company, for the first time, “withheld” content from users from a certain jurisdiction. As Twitter explains on its website, its “goal is to respect [its] users’ expression,…
By Eric Goldman and Jake McGowan E-Commerce * Noll v. eBay, 2012 WL 1413442 (N.D. Cal. April 23, 2012). The Complaint. eBay’s “Good ‘Til Canceled” fees survive a legal challenge. * Porras v. StubHub: StubHub not liable for tickets that…
By Guest Blogger Marketa Trimble Does the Supreme Court Have a Free Policy Choice in Wiley v. Kirtsaeng? (A Template for an Interpretation of the Copyright Act that Ignores the Place of Manufacture and Provides a Free Choice between the…
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with a comment from Eric] Hernandez v. Path, Inc., 2012 WL 5194120 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 17, 2012) This is another lawsuit alleging that apps improperly accessed address book and contact information on mobile devices. The related…
by Guest Blogger Tyler Ochoa The right of publicity is a state-law right to use one’s identity for a commercial purpose. Thus, if you want to use a celebrity’s name or image in an advertisement, you have to get his…
By Eric Goldman and Jake McGowan Facebook * Facebook settles “Friend Finder” lawsuit. Prior blog post. * Two girls, ages 12 and 13, face felony for creating a fake Facebook account. * Facebook says ‘Likes’ are Free Speech in Sheriff…
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric] Dex Media West v. Seattle, Nos. 11-35399 & 35787 (9th Cir. Oct. 15, 2012) [pdf] The City of Seattle thought that Yellow Pages were not particularly useful and created unnecessary waste, so…
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Burns v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, No. 1268 C.D. 2011 (Commonwealth Ct. Pa. Oct. 16, 2012) It’s almost become cliché to cite to examples of people fired due to their social media posts, but here…
By Eric Goldman and Jake McGowan Advertising * Marketing Land: Google Results Position: How Much is First Place Really Worth? * Tom O’Toole recaps the ubiquity of text messaging marketing by NHL teams…and their need to clean up their privacy…