Quick Links from the Past Year, Part 3 (Trademarks)
Initial Interest Confusion It’s 2022 and we’re still dealing with this shit. SMH. Can we please just outright kill the doctrine and spend our time on more meaningful problems? * “the initial interest confusion doctrine…requires a finding of likelihood of…
Quick Links from the Past Year, Part 2 (Copyright)
* Hebenstreit v. Merchants Bank of Indiana, 1:18-cv-00056-JPH-DLP (S.D. Ind. Aug. 26, 2021). A photo of the Indianapolis nighttime skyline has generated $825 in license fees & $135k in settlements. After 3+ yrs of litigation, court awards Bell $200 in…
“Private” Facebook Groups Aren’t Legally “Private”–Davis v. HDR
The plaintiff, Davis, is a member of two Facebook groups: “Ahwatukee411,” with over 32k members as alleged in the complaint (as the screenshot on the right shows, it’s now over 34k members), and “Protecting Arizona’s Resources & Children” (“PARC”), with…
Can Facebook Stop Data Snarfers?–Meta v. BrandTotal
I refer to “data snarfers” as businesses that aggregate (via scraping or APIs) lots of sensitive online personal information to offer analytics, business/competitive intelligence, and similar services. Academic researchers can also fit this paradigm. Many of these businesses legitimately fill…
Quick Links From the Past Year, Part 1 (CCPA and Privacy)
[My approach to quick links is obviously not working very well. C’est la vie.] CCPA [Since I’ve got some CCPA links, it’s an excuse to resurrect the dumpster fire meme. Remember, the CPRA meme is the rolling van on fire.]…
The Copyright Claims Board Is Opening Next Week. Are You Excited?
The Copyright Office has completed its initial rulemaking for the new copyright “small claims” court called the “Copyright Claims Board” (the CCB). It has also launched a website with explanatory material. This post will round up what we know about…
Uber Isn’t Liable for Rapes Committed By Fake Drivers–Doe 1 v. Uber
Rapists pretended to be Uber drivers, picked up women under false pretenses, and raped them. As the court summarizes, “Jane Does seek to hold Uber liable for failing to warn them about or implement other measures to protect them against…
Can Tattoos Infringe Copyrights, and If So, What Happens Then?–Sedlik v. Kat Von D
Can tattoos infringe copyrights, and if yes, what remedies are appropriate? This is a venerable question–I remember evaluating it as a possible law review note topic 30+ years ago. This opinion is the first I can recall that answers the…
Supreme Court Restores Injunction Against Texas HB 20!–NetChoice v. Paxton
Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted the emergency application to restore the injunction against HB 20, Texas’ social media censorship law. The vote was 5-4, with Barrett, Breyer, Kavanaugh, Roberts, and Sotomayor voting to reinstate the injunction, and Alito, Gorsuch, Kagan,…