Rescuecom v. Google Oral Arguments Finally Calendared

By Eric Goldman You may recall Rescuecom v. Google, where the district court dismissed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Google for selling trademarked keywords because the sales lacked the requisite use in commerce. We are all watching this case closely…

Click Fraud Talk at SMX West

By Eric Goldman At SMX West, I participated on a panel about recent search engine law developments with Clarke Walton, Sarah Bird and Jeffrey Rohrs as moderator. Jeff asked me to address click fraud developments, so here’s a recap of…

CaféPress Denied 230 Motion to Dismiss–Curran v. Amazon

By Eric Goldman Curran v. Amazon.com, Inc., 2008 WL 472433 (S.D. W.Va. Feb. 19, 2008) Erik Curran was a National Guard soldier who served in “a combat zone.” For reasons unclear from this opinion, he was photographed by an unspecified…

Eric Menhart Backs Off CyberLaw Trademark Claim

By Eric Goldman You may recall that last month we all had a good laugh over self-proclaimed Cyberlawyer Eric Menhart’s trademark application for the term “CyberLaw” to describe his Cyberlaw practice. (In case it wasn’t clear, we weren’t laughing WITH…

McKenna on Trademark Use in Commerce

By Eric Goldman As you know, a big issue in online trademark law is the meaning and import of a “trademark use in commerce” requirement. To win its case, a trademark plaintiff must show that the defendant made a use…

No Liability for Providing User-Selected Category Tags–Whitney v. Xcentric

By Eric Goldman Whitney Information Network v. Xcentric Ventures, No. 2:04-cv-47-FtM-34SPC (M.D. Fla. Feb. 15, 2008) On remand from the 11th Circuit, the district court once again found that 47 USC 230 protects Rip-off Report and related entities from a…

Turnitin Lawsuit to Be Dismissed–AV v. iParadigms

By Eric Goldman A.V. v. iParadigms, LLC, No. 07-0293 (E.D. Va. removal from trial docket Jan. 9, 2008) iParadigms, the operators of the Turnitin plagiarism detection tool, issued a confusing press release earlier this week announcing that the lawsuit against…

Classic Article on “Cybermediaries”

By Eric Goldman Mitra B. Sarkar et al., Intermediaries and Cybermediaries: A Continuing Role for Mediating Players in the Electronic Marketplace, J. COMPUTER MEDIATED COMMUNICATIONS, 1995 I’ve been working on my Brand Spillovers paper, which in part addresses the trademark…

Jan. 2008 Quick Links (IP Edition)

By Eric Goldman Trademarks and Domain Names * Adidas America, Inc. v. Payless Shoesource, Inc., 2007 WL 4482201 (D. Oregon Dec. 21, 2007). This case (1) discusses whether advice of counsel is a defense against willfulness in the trademark context,…

Jan. 2008 Quick Links (Non-IP Edition)

By Eric Goldman 47 USC 230 * Doe v. SexSearch, the case absolving a website for age verification of its users, has been appealed. * The Supreme Court denied cert in Parker v. Google. See 2008 WL 114262. * NYT…