Trademark Owners Just Can’t Win Keyword Advertising Cases–EarthCam v. OxBlue
I have repeatedly observed that trademark owners routinely lose their lawsuits against advertisers who buy their trademarks as advertising keywords. (This is in addition to the futility of bringing trademark lawsuits against search engines, which almost no one does any…
Jointly Editable Online Document Doesn’t Provide Evidence of Contract Formation–Turner v. Temptu
The litigants discussed working together to launch a new product in the marketplace. As seems to be inevitable in situations like this, the parties’ relationship fell out. Trying to salvage something from the situation, Turner alleged the parties had formed…
The GOOGLE Mark Isn’t Generic–Elliott v. Google (Forbes Cross-Post)
The “Google” trademark regularly ranks as one of the most valuable trademarks in the world. In 2011, Forbes estimated the trademark’s value at $44B, and a more recent estimate placed the value at $113B. Almost certainly, the “Google” trademark is…
LiveJournal Wins 512(c) Safe Harbor Ruling For Celebrity Gossip Blog–Mavrix v. LiveJournal
This case involves a LiveJournal blog called “Oh No They Didn’t!” (ONTD) that republishes reader submissions about celebrity gossip. There are nine moderators of the blog, including one–Brian Delzer–who became a LiveJournal employee. Unsurprisingly given the blog’s subject, readers submitted…
Urban Outfitters’ Kent State T-Shirt Was Offensive But Probably Legal (Guest Blog Post)
By Tyler Ochoa As reported in various news outlets (including MSN and New York magazine), Urban Outfitters generated a storm of controversy on Twitter a few days ago, when it was discovered that it was offering for sale a “vintage”…
Texas Supreme Court Limits Reach of Pre-suit Discovery (Guest Blog Post)
[Eric’s introduction: this guest blog post comes from Ed Cavazos of Bracewell & Giuliani in Austin, Texas, who I’ve known for 20 years. Ed was part of the first wave of lawyers and scholars focusing on Internet law, and he…
California Tells Businesses: Stop Trying To Ban Consumer Reviews (Forbes Cross-Post)
Increasingly, businesses are looking for ways to suppress or erase consumers’ negative online reviews of them. In particular, we’ve recently seen a proliferation of contract clauses purporting to stop consumers from reviewing businesses online. Those overreaching contract clauses have never…
Ninth Circuit Says Yelp Doesn’t Extort Businesses–Levitt v. Yelp (Forbes Cross-Post)
For years, Yelp has been dogged by allegations that it manipulates user reviews to coerce businesses to advertise with it. While businesses aren’t likely to stop grumbling about these concerns any time soon, a federal appellate court emphatically shut the…
Internet Law Professors Ask California Supreme Court To Review Pharmaceutical Liability Case
Hardin v. PDX is a quirky case that flew under the radar a bit. The case was brought by Hardin, a victim injured by bad drug interactions. She claims that she would have avoided the interaction if she had been…
Lock Manufacturer Onity Had Only One Job, But Isn’t Liable For Failing To Do It Well (Forbes Cross-Post)
Let’s start with two non-controversial propositions: (1) no lock offers perfect security, and (2) any lock that can be defeated by a “stupidly simple” method is functionally worthless. But can a buyer of a functionally worthless lock recover in court?…