Flash Cookies Lawsuit Tossed for Lack of Harm–La Court v. Specific Media
By Eric Goldman La Court v. Specific Media, Inc., 8:10-cv-01256-GW-JCG (C.D. Cal. April 28, 2011) Lawsuits over cookies seem so Y2K to me. I thought we’d pretty much concluded that placing cookies wasn’t actionable a decade ago (see, e.g., In…
Another Defense-Favorable Righthaven Ruling–Righthaven v. Choudhry
By Eric Goldman Righthaven v. Choudhry, 2011 WL 1743839 (D. Nev. May 3, 2011) This lawsuit involves the “Vdara Death-Ray” image published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which has been the basis of numerous Righthaven lawsuits. In this case, Choudhry…
Ruminations on the Likelihood of Consumer Confusion Standard in Trademark Law
By Eric Goldman Last month, I attended the Third Trademark Scholars’ Roundtable in Bloomington, Indiana. See my prior blog posts about the first and second roundtables. See a photo of the participants. As usual, Rebecca acted as event chronicler. See…
California’s Reader Privacy Act: A First Step in a New Direction (Guest Blog Post)
By Sonya Ziaja (with comments at the end from Eric) [Eric’s note: this guest post is from Sonya Ziaja, J.D., a California attorney and co-owner of Ziaja Consulting LLC. She writes regularly for LegalMatch’s Law Blog and Ziaja Consulting’s blog,…
Maryland Supreme Court Rejects “Circumstantial Authentication” Standard for MySpace Evidence — Griffin v. Maryland
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Griffin v. Maryland, No. 74 (Maryland; Apr. 28, 2011) I blogged last year about a case in Maryland where the court allowed prosecutors to authenticate a witness’s MySpace page merely by accessing it from the internet,…
Cease & Desist Letter to iTunes Isn’t Covered by 17 USC 512(f)–Red Rock v. UMG
By Eric Goldman Rock River Communications, Inc. v. Universal Music Group, Inc., 2011 WL 1598916 (C.D.Cal. April 27, 2011) We continue to get more cases telling us what 17 USC 512(f), the cause of action for bogus copyright takedown notices,…
Department of Commerce Releases Worthless Report on Trademark Bullying
By Eric Goldman Trademark Litigation Tactics and Federal Government Services to Protect Trademarks and Prevent Counterfeiting, April 2011. [For background, see my earlier blog post on trademark bullies. The term “bully” appears only 4 times in the report; as FN51…
Copyright Takedown Notice Isn’t Actionable Unless There’s an Actual Takedown–Amaretto v. Ozimals
By Eric Goldman Amaretto Ranch Breedables, LLC v. Ozimals, Inc., 2011 WL 1753479 (N.D. Cal. April 22, 2011). My initial blog post on this case. The virtual horses and bunnies are back. This is the lawsuit between two vendors of…
Jury Rejects Lawyer’s Claims Under DC’s Anti-Spam Law — CyberLaw v. Thelaw.net
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Cyberlaw P.C. v. Thelaw.net, No 2009 CA 003615 (D.C. Sup. Ct. March 16, 2011) (complaint) (verdict form) Lawyers receive a fair amount of spam from service providers and companies who offer CLEs and other services. Most…
Court Says CAN-SPAM Plaintiff Can’t Take Second Bite at the Apple — Melaleuca v. Hansen
[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Melaleuca v Hansen, 10-cv-00553 (D. Idaho; Apr. 15, 2011) This is a case where Melaleuca – a large multi-level marketing company – asserted spam claims against Daryl Hansen. That’s probably a charitable way of putting it….