Section 230 Doesn’t Protect Employer From Negligent Supervision Claim–Lansing v. Southwest Airlines. Warning: Ugly Opinion
By Eric Goldman Lansing v. Southwest Airlines Co., 2012 IL App (1st) 101164 (Ill. Ct. App. June 8, 2012) Overview This is a bad opinion. The court reaches the correct result that 47 USC 230 doesn’t immunize an employer for…
First Post-Viacom 512(c) Opinion Doesn’t Look Much Different–Obodai v. Demand Media
By Eric Goldman Obodai v. Demand Media, Inc., 2012 WL 2189740 (SDNY June 13, 2012) This is the first substantive ruling I’ve seen interpreting the Second Circuit’s Viacom v. YouTube ruling. (The Viacom ruling was also discussed in the Ouellette…
Recap of the Fourth Trademark Scholars Roundtable at DePaul University
By Eric Goldman In April, Graeme Dinwoodie and Mark Janis once again convened a roundtable of trademark law scholars to geek it out on trademark law. Group photo. This year’s theme was “trademark boundaries,” i.e., how trademark law abuts against…
Nathenson on Teaching Internet Law
By Eric Goldman Ira Nathenson is a law professor at St. Thomas University in Florida. He has posted to SSRN an article called “Best Practices for the Law of the Horse: Teaching Cyberlaw and Illuminating Law Through Online Simulations,” which…
More Evidence That the Initial Interest Confusion Doctrine is Dying–Dwyer v. Sensocon
By Eric Goldman Dwyer Instruments, Inc. v. Sensocon, Inc., 2012 WL 2049921 (N.D. Ind. June 5, 2012) Earlier this year, I blogged about some research I had done suggesting the declining fortunes of the initial interest confusion doctrine. I anticipated…
University of Alabama Can’t Stop Paintings of Famous Crimson Tide Football Moments–University of Alabama v. New Life Art
By guest blogger Deborah Gerhardt [Eric’s introduction: Deborah Gerhardt is a law professor at University of North Carolina. She is part of the 3G team (including myself and Leah Chan Grinvald) working on the trademark policing article I mentioned last…
Trademark Registrant Isn’t Required to Shut Down Competitive Keyword Advertisers–STK v. Backrack
By Eric Goldman STK LLC v. Backrack, Inc., Cancellation No. 92049332, 2012 WL 2024459 (TTAB May 21, 2012). The TTAB designated this opinion “non-precedential,” which they do with the vast majority of their opinions. Deborah Gerhardt, Leah Chan Grinvald and…
Backpage Gets TRO Against Washington Law Attempting to Bypass Section 230–Backpage v. McKenna
By Eric Goldman Backpage.com, LLC v. McKenna, 2:12-cv-00954-RSM (W.D. Wash. June 5, 2012). The complaint. Backpage’s TRO motion. As part of states’ ongoing crusade against online prostitution ads, earlier this year Washington enacted SB 6251, captioned “Regulating advertising of commercial…
Satirical Anti-Birther Blog Post Protected by DC’s Anti-SLAPP Law–Farah v. Esquire
By Eric Goldman Farah v. Esquire Magazine, Inc., 2012 WL 1970897 (D.D.C. June 4, 2012). TPM coverage. Joseph Farah is CEO/editor of WorldNetDaily, and Jerome Corsi is a senior staff reporter there. WorldNetDaily has published hundreds of stories on Birther…
“Hot Topics in Internet Law” Talk Slides
By Eric Goldman This weekend I presented on “Hot Topics in Internet Law” at the San Francisco IP Law Association’s Spring Seminar in Healdsburg. My talk slides. A few photos from the trip. As I’ve mentioned before, I find “hot…