Online Marketplace Defeats Trademark Suit Because It’s Not the “Seller”–OSU v. Redbubble
Redbubble is an online marketplace for artists. It outsources many of its functions. Its artist-vendors “are automatically connected with a third-party manufacturer to make the goods.” Redbubble also uses third-party services to package/ship goods and process payments. It appears much…
Blogger’s Screenshot of a Newspaper Page Qualifies as Fair Use–Clark v. TransAlt
The photo at issue depicts a dockless bike on a sidewalk. The New York Post published an article on dockless bikes and included the photo. You can get a sense of that story from my screenshot of the NY Post…
New Paper Announcement: “Copyright’s Memory Hole”
I’m pleased to announce a new paper, “Copyright’s Memory Hole,” co-authored with Northeastern Law professor Jessica Silbey. The paper is still in draft form, and Jessica and I plan to do a major edit to the paper this summer. So…
Copyright Registration, Publication on the Internet, and the Revolving “Back Door to Berne” (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Marketa Trimble Localization – the determination of where persons and things are deemed to be located and events are deemed to happen – is important for many legal purposes; decisions concerning personal jurisdiction and choice of applicable…
Rounding Up Three Recent Keyword Advertising Cases–Comphy v. Amazon & More
Three interesting recent keyword advertising cases: Comphy Co. v. Amazon.com, Inc., 2019 WL 1128519 (W.D. Wash. March 12, 2019) Comphy makes high-end linens. It chooses not to sell directly on Amazon. Nevertheless, Amazon has purchased search engine keyword ads triggered…
Important Section 230 Ruling from the Second Circuit–Herrick v. Grindr
This case involves an e-personation attack caused by fake Grindr postings from an ex-boyfriend. The victim claims to have contacted Grindr dozens of times seeking relief, to no avail. The victim sued Grindr for the attack, styling the case as…
March Madness! Court Dismisses Lawsuit Over Massive Cyberattack After Basketball Game Loss–Higgins v. Kentucky Sports Radio
Today’s opinion starts out with an understatement: “This case presents a familiar situation where some sports fanatics overreacted about the outcome of a basketball game.” The game in question is the 2017 “Elite Eight” game between the University of Kentucky and…
Ruling in Emoji Beach Ball IP Case Left Me Confused 😕–Kangaroo v. Amazon
This case involves the alleged counterfeiting of emoji beach balls on Amazon. It doesn’t get into emoji-specific IP issues and devolves into a garbled tangle over Amazon marketplace product catalog issues. Still, EMOJI LAW ALERT!!! 😲 The plaintiff makes emoji…
Tenth Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Sinclair v. Twitter
This is the 10th different case where a judge has rejected allegations that Twitter and other social media services materially support terrorists. As with most of the others, the plaintiffs’ lawyers are Excolo Law and 1-800 LAWFIRM. I’ve blogged the…
Two Examples of How Courts Interpret Emojis
As I’ve noted before, we haven’t gotten a U.S. court opinion thoroughly interpreting emojis. The most incisive emoji law opinion to date remains the Israeli small claims court opinion that includes the baffling chipmunk emoji. Nevertheless, some court opinions do…