Beacon Class Action Settlement Approved — Lane v. Facebook
[Post by Venkat] Lane v. Facebook (Case No. 09-3845 RS; March 17, 2010) [scribd link] Judge Seeborg yesterday issued an order approving the class settlement in Lane v. Facebook, the class action lawsuit arising out of Facebook’s Beacon program. Background:…
Regulating Reputational Systems Slides
By Eric Goldman Last week, I presented my Regulating Reputational Systems talk to non-lawyers at the Jewish High Tech Community. My talk slides. I’ve been working on this topic now for about 18 months, and I’m finally getting closer to…
Stratton Faxon v. Google Dismissed
By Eric Goldman Stratton Faxon v. Google, Inc., NNH-CV-09-5031219S (Conn. Superior Ct. dismissed March 8, 2010) Stratton Faxon v. Google was always an oddball case in the constellation of trademark owner challenges to Google AdWords. First, the plaintiff–a law firm…
Data Anonymization and Re-identification Lecture Featuring Paul Ohm, SCU, April 7
By Eric Goldman University of Colorado law professor Paul Ohm has written one of the most provocative privacy-related papers of the past few years, Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization. Using examples such as the…
Utah Passes Nation’s First (?) Bioprospecting Regulation
By Eric Goldman The Utah legislature has passed SB 51, the “Utah Bioprospecting Act,” which requires a government-issued license (which presumably will include a royalty cut for the state) before engaging in bioprospecting on government lands not owned by the…
TradeComet v. Google Dismissed Based on Venue Selection Clause
By Eric Goldman TradeComet.com LLC v. Google, Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20154 (SDNY March 5, 2010) The judge has (finally) dismissed TradeComet’s antitrust lawsuit against Google based on the venue selection clause in Google’s AdWords contract. The result isn’t…
Crowdsourced Ads May Not Be Protected by 47 USC 230–Subway v. Quiznos
By Eric Goldman Doctor’s Associates, Inc. v. QIP Holders LLC, 2010 WL 669870 (D. Conn. Feb. 19, 2010). My prior post on this case. As a long-time vegetarian (over a quarter-century), I find America’s obsession with “more meat” competitions simultaneously…
Rescuecom Abandons Its Litigation Against Google
By Eric Goldman Today, Rescuecom issued a press release declaring victory in its litigation against Google. But it’s an odd definition of “victory” given that Rescuecom has apparently voluntarily abandoned its 6 year litigation effort without any new concessions from…
Eighth Circuit: No Derivative Liability Under Iowa Spam Statute — Kramer v. Bartok
[Post by Venkat] Kramer v. Bartok, Case No. 08-3841 (8th Cir. Feb. 19, 2010) (scribd link). The Eighth Circuit recently reversed an award of $236 million in damages against a spam defendant based on a theory of secondary liability. The…
Google Dismisses Some Claims in Jurin v. Google and Gets Some Attorneys’ Fees
By Eric Goldman Jurin v. Google, Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18208 (E.D. Cal. March 1, 2010) Jurin v. Google is one of the 10 outstanding trademark-based claims against Google’s AdWords programs–in this case, over advertiser purchases of Jurin’s trademark…