Cautionary Tale for Settling Trademark Cases–Tormented Souls v. Tormented Souls Motorcycle Club
By Eric Goldman Tormented Souls Inc. v. Tormented Souls Motorcycle Club Inc., 2012 WL 1314128 (E.D.N.Y. April 17, 2012) The parties settled a trademark litigation. The settlement agreement required the defendants to “take all the steps necessary to remove all…
Facebook Beats Class Certification in Click Fraud Case
By Eric Goldman In re Facebook, Inc., PPC Advertising Litigation, 2012 WL 1253182 (N.D.Cal. April 13, 2012) I don’t know what I like less: click fraud, or bogus lawsuits over click fraud. This three-year-old case (see my initial blog post…
Texas Ruling Shows the Benefits We’d Get From a Federal Anti-SLAPP Law–American Heritage Capital v. Gonzalez
By Eric Goldman American Heritage Capital, LP v. Dinah Gonzalez and Alan Gonzalez, No. DC-11-13741-C (Texas District Court April 13, 2012). The amended complaint. The defendant’s anti-SLAPP motion. This may be the first application of Texas’ new anti-SLAPP law to…
MapleStory Enforcement Action Leads to Ridiculously Large Anti-Circumvention Damages–Nexon v. Kumar
By Eric Goldman Nexon America Inc. v. Kumar, 2012 WL 1116328 (C.D. Cal. April 3, 2012) It can be disconcerting when UGC websites turn into IP enforcement plaintiffs. Perhaps the biggest offender has been Craigslist, which has brought numerous ill-advised…
“Social Media and Trademark Law” Talk Notes
By Eric Goldman Today, I gave a talk at Suffolk University’s event “Social Networking Sites: Law, Policy and Practical Strategies” on Social Media and Trademark Law. My talk notes: _____ 1. Overview A. Trademark doctrine is inherently elastic * Schizophrenia…
Fourth Circuit’s Rosetta Stone v. Google Opinion Pushes Back Resolution of Keyword Advertising Legality Another 5-10 Years
By Eric Goldman Rosetta Stone Ltd. v. Google, Inc.,, 2012 WL 1155143 (4th Cir. April 9, 2012). I’m listed in the caption as a limited intervenor in the efforts led by Paul Levy to crack open the redacted material from…
AdKnowledge Denied 47 USC 230 Immunity (Again)–Chang v. Wozo
By Eric Goldman Chang v. Wozo LLC, 2012 WL 1067643 (D. Mass. March 28, 2012) This case is a cross between Swift v. Zynga and Goddard v. Google. Tatto runs a website, Wozo, that sells art posters. It created a…
Second Circuit Ruling in Viacom v. YouTube Is a Bummer for Google and the UGC Community
By Eric Goldman Viacom International, Inc., v. YouTube, Inc., 10-3270-cv, 2012 WL 1130851 (2d Cir. April 5, 2012). The companion case is the Football Association Premier League Ltd. v. YouTube, 10-3342-cv Overview After five years in the courts, the Viacom…
Tough Mudder Gets Its Hands Dirty in Trade Dress Fight (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Tsan Abrahamson of Cobalt Law [Eric’s introduction: Tsan and I go back two decades to when we were both JD/MBA students at UCLA; then we worked together at Cooley in the second half of the 1990s before…
Data Security Breach Settlement Class of 130M Individuals Has 11 Claimants (at a Cost of $160k Per)–In re Heartland Payment Systems
By Eric Goldman In re Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, 2012 WL 948365 (S.D. Tex. March 20, 2012). The settlement website. [Note: I know that many big-scale class action lawsuits have similarly mockable numbers. But I…