Ranking of “Dirtiest Hotels” Based on User Ratings is “Unverifiable Rhetorical Hyperbole”–Seaton v. TripAdvisor (Partial Forbes Cross-Post)

By Eric Goldman [This is another situation where I’m posting the first draft of this post here and linking to the Forbes version, which reads a little differently. As always, I welcome feedback about which version you liked better.] Seaton…

Amazon.com’s Anti-Counterfeiting Efforts Blessed by California Appellate Court (Forbes Cross-Post)

By Eric Goldman A California appellate court has blessed Amazon.com’s ($AMZN) efforts to police counterfeit goods sold by its third party merchants.  This is especially good news for Amazon because the leading precedent on the topic had blessed eBay’s ($EBAY)…

Google Tries Again to Respond to Judge Alsup’s Shill Disclosure Order. Now, How About Oracle?

By Eric Goldman Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc., 3:10-cv-03561-WHA (N.D. Cal. Aug. 24, 2012) In the ongoing saga about Judge Alsup’s requests that Oracle and Google disclose possible shills, Google filed a supplemental disclosure that listed 13 individuals/organizations. There’s…

Why Did Google Flip-Flop On Cracking Down On “Rogue” Websites? Some Troubling Possibilities (Forbes Cross-Post)

By Eric Goldman Earlier this month, Google announced that it may downgrade search results for a website if Google receives a high volume of “valid” takedown notices against the website.  Google’s move has confused many Google-watchers, largely because the exact…

Judge Alsup Tells Google to Try Harder With Its Shill Disclosures

By Eric Goldman Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc., 3:10-cv-03561-WHA (N.D. Cal. Aug. 20, 2012) I can’t imagine Google is surprised that Judge Alsup did not like its response to his request that Google and Oracle disclose potential shills in…

Oracle and Google Make Unenlightening Disclosures of their “Shills”

By Eric Goldman In Oracle v. Google, Judge Alsup recently ordered the parties to: [f]ile a statement . . . identifying all authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers who have reported or commented on any issues in the case and who…

Section 230 Immunizes Links to Defamatory Third Party Content–Directory Assistants v. Supermedia

By Eric Goldman Directory Assistants, Inc. v. Supermedia, LLC, 2012 WL 3329615 (E.D. Va. May 30, 2012) [For some reason, this case just appeared in my Westlaw alerts today. Even at this late date, it’s worth sharing. I have a…

Six-Month Retrospective of SOPA’s Demise [Forbes Cross-Post, A Month Late!] + SOPA/PROTECT-IP/OPEN Linkwrap #3

By Eric Goldman [This post is composed of three parts. The first part, all 2,700 words of it, is a cross-post from Forbes last month assessing where we stood 6 months after January 18, 2012. Sorry it’s taken me so…

Introducing Blogging Assistant Jake McGowan, and Another Request for Help

By Eric Goldman As I recently mentioned, I am also blogging at my Forbes blog, Tertium Quid. To help balance out some of this blog’s workload, I’m pleased to introduce the Technology & Marketing Law Blog’s first-ever blogging assistant, Jake…

Request for Help: Fill Out a Short Survey on Entrepreneurs’ Handling of Patent Demands

By Eric Goldman While we may have some voyeuristic fun watching a high-profile patent trial like Apple v. Samsung, patent litigation isn’t always a “sport of kings.” To shed some light on these less-publicized aspects of patent enforcement, my colleague…