FTC Sues 1-800 Contacts For Restricting Competitive Keyword Advertising
For over a decade, I’ve blogged about 1-800 Contacts’ campaign to suppress competitive keyword advertising, including its legislative games (e.g., those times when 1-800 Contacts asked the Utah legislature to ban competitive keyword advertising) and at least 15 lawsuits against…
Repeat Plaintiff Can’t Sue Search Engines Because Employers Won’t Hire Him–Despot v. Baltimore Life Insurance
The plaintiff, David Despot, has “filed many cases in various courts over the years.” Apparently there is some disagreement about the exact number: “Casetext indicates that its own website reveals 10 lawsuits, BLIC refers specifically to 5, Google states that…
An Assessment of the Anthem Data Breach Litigation Rulings (Guest Blog Post)
By guest blogger David Silverman [Eric’s intro: this blog post helps distill Judge Koh’s two rulings, In re Anthem Inc. Data Breach Litig., No. 15-MD-02617 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 16, 2016) (“Anthem I”) and In re Anthem Inc. Data Breach Litig., No. 15-MD-02617 (N.D….
Competitive Keyword Advertising Lawsuit Will Go To A Jury–Edible Arrangements v. Provide Commerce
The parties compete in the “chocolate and fruit-based gift packages” market. Provide bought competitive keywords that used the plaintiff’s trademark, including the keywords “edible arrangements,” “edible arrangements locations,” “edible arrangements coupons,” “edible arrangements promotional code,” “edible arrangements bouquet,” “edible arrangements…
Texas Ethics Opinion Approves Competitive Keyword Ads By Lawyers
The Texas State Bar’s Professional Ethics Committee has issued Ethics Opinion #661 approving lawyers’ use of competitive keyword advertising. The opinion concludes: A lawyer does not violate the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct by simply using the name of…
Second Circuit’s Decision in Microsoft v. U.S. (Data Stored in Ireland): Good News for Internet Users? (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Marketa Trimble With the July 14, 2016, decision in Microsoft v. United States (“Microsoft”) by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the question arises – as it usually does in cases involving technology in general…
Want An Enforceable Online Contract? Don’t Use A Footer Link Called “Reference”–Zajac v. Walker
This lawsuit involves the purchase of items I don’t understand. Let’s just call them “thingies.” The buyer Zajac needed thingies with an appropriate rating. It bought the thingies from a distributor, Walker, then realized the thingies didn’t have the appropriate…
Blogger Doing Investigative Research Defeats Personal Jurisdiction–FireClean v. Tuohy
FireClean sells an eponymous cleaning oil, FIREClean, “advertised to reduce carbon residue buildup in firearms.” Andrew Tuohy blogs about firearms at the Vuurwapen blog (Dutch for “firearms”). Allegations swirled that FIREClean was just Crisco. Tuohy worked with a University of…
Search Engine Snippets Protected By Section 230–O’Kroley v. Fastcase
The plaintiff’s vanity Google search results included the following snippet: “indecency with a child in Trial Court Cause N . . . Colin O’Kroley v Pringle.” The linked result (to Google Book’s indexing of Texas Advance Sheet–see image) contained a…
Message Board Operator May Be Liable For Moderator’s Content–Enigma v. Bleeping
It’s been a brutal year for Section 230 jurisprudence, and the hits keep coming. In today’s case, the parties ran into a judge who seemed unshakably determined–for reasons I can’t determine–to deny the motion to dismiss. This produces an outlier…