May 2009 Quick Links Part 1
By Eric Goldman
Just a reminder that I’m posting some quick links exclusively to my Twitter account.
Trademarks
* Texas International Property Associates v. Hoerbiger Holding AG, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40409 (N.D. Tex. May 12, 2009). Domainer loses ACPA claim over typosquatted domain name. The PPC advertising constituted bad faith intent to profit. Ryan Gile recaps the action.
* GunBroker.com LLC v. Heckler & Koch Inc., No. 09-cv-00051 (M.D. Ga. complaint filed May 14, 2009). Interesting lawsuit by an online auction site for guns seeking a declaratory relief action against a trademark owner who deployed an enforcement agency, Continental Enterprises, to send a driftnet takedown letter that apparently targeted used gun resales or compatible goods. Ryan Gile has more.
* Miranda v. Guerroro, 2009 WL 1381250 (S.D. Fla. May 14, 2009). Miranda is “Paola Morena,” a Latin singer. Her former manager convinced her to do some nude photo shoots in an effort to get a Playboy gig. The Playboy gig didn’t materialize, and the manager stopped representing Miranda/Morena. After Morena’s career took off, the manager then allegedly threatened to publicly post the photos unless she paid him $70k. Morena rebuffed the request, so the manager allegedly followed through with his threats by launching a website paolamorena.com [I got a nasty Google malware warning when I tried to visit the site], calling it her “official” site and posting some of the photos. The court enjoined the manager under trademark law. I’m a little confused how Morena had protectable trademark rights in her name. Did she make any use in commerce in the United States? Did her name achieve secondary meaning? This could be another case where trademark law is being stretched to stop bad behavior.
* Eric Menhart, the self-purported owner of a trademark in the term Cyberlaw, has gotten his very own personal gripe site.
Advertising and Marketing
* How much can Behavioral Targeting Help Online Advertising? HT Greg Linden
* Yingling v. eBay, 5:2009cv01733 (N.D. Cal. complaint filed April 21, 2009). A class action lawsuit alleging that eBay Motors overcharged merchants.
* IAB has issued its Click Measurement Guidelines designed to answer the Q “What is a Click?” See if their 28 page report actually answers the Q.
* A confusingly written LA Times article reports that 4 South Korean dissident bloggers are being criminally prosecuted for artificially inflating impression counts in order to game rankings of most popular pages.
* Perennially funny: unfortunate product names.
Copyright
* Solicitor General recommends against granting cert in Cartoon Network v. CSC.
* AV v. iParadigms, April 16, 2009. The Fourth Circuit says that the Turnitin system is fair use. My initial blog post on the district court ruling.
Security
* News.com: Interview with FBI cybercrime agent working undercover.
* Oddee: problematic CAPTCHAs. Funny.
* Everyone wants to talk about whether Google is a monopolist
– In early May, I heard Susan Athey, Microsoft’s Chief Economist, give a lunchtime attack speech on Google at a George Mason event
– Google is circulating a document explaining why it’s good for competition
– Google is blanketing DC with lobbyists too.
– And Google says it’s actually small potatoes.
– Wired: Will Wolfram Alpha forestall antitrust inquiry into Google? As I’ve argued before, we continue to see new entrants into the search business all the time—it’s just too big a market to ignore.
– NYT weighs in too. And the Washington Post discusses how Microsoft and others are complaining about how many Google folks are going into the Obama administration.
* Danny Sullivan: State Of Search: Google Will Stay Strong Despite Bing & Yahoo
* Wired: Secret of Googlenomics: Data-Fueled Recipe Brews Profitability