Talk Notes: Death of the Initial Interest Confusion Doctrine?
By Eric Goldman As you may know, the IP professor community is blessed to have a number of “work-in-progress” events where we share our research-in-process with, and get early feedback from, our peers. Last weekend, I attended one of those…
Employee Wins Harassment Claim Based in Part on Co-Workers’ Offsite Blog Posts–Espinoza v. Orange
By Eric Goldman Espinoza v. County of Orange, 2012 WL 420149 (Cal. App. Ct. February 9, 2012) Espinoza was born with an incomplete hand. In 1996, he started working for the county probations department. In 2006, a co-worker started two…
Roommates.com Isn’t Dealing in Illegal Content, Even Though the Ninth Circuit Denied Section 230 Immunity Because It Was
By Eric Goldman Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommate.com, LLC, 2012 WL 310849 (9th Cir. February 2, 2012) A brief history of this long-running case. Fair housing advocates sued Roommates.com for allowing potential roommates to evaluate each…
Are You Kinning Me? Microsoft Beats Trademark Lawsuit Over Kinect–Kinbook v. Microsoft
By Eric Goldman Kinbook LLC v. Microsoft Corp., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8570 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 25, 2012) Microsoft makes the Kinect motion controller for Xbox, and for a while tried out a mobile phone named Kin. Kinbook makes a…
Judge Can’t Decide if Facebook’s User Agreement is a Browsewrap, But He Enforces It Anyways–Fteja v. Facebook
By Eric Goldman Fteja v. Facebook, Inc.,2012 WL 183896 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 24, 2012). Fteja’s initial “complaint” (filed as an order to show cause). If I could wave a magic wand, I’d retire the phrases “clickwrap” and “browsewrap.” Those terms trace…
Newspaper Isn’t Liable for User Website Comment Per 47 USC 230–Delle v. Worcester T&G
By Eric Goldman Delle v. Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp., 2011 WL 7090709 (Mass. Super. Ct. Sept. 14, 2011) I previously mentioned this ruling in a recent Quick Link, but I can write up a full post now that I’ve…
Top Internet Law Developments of 2011
By Eric Goldman As usual, I’m running late with my year-end recap. This post begins with my countdown of the top 5 Internet Law developments of 2011, then it lists other interesting developments and cases. It concludes with some of…
Facebook Boasts/Taunts Undermine the Legal Defense for a Fight at a House Party–In re DLW
By Eric Goldman In the Matter of the Welfare of: D.L.W., Child, 2012 WL 171412 (Minn. App. Ct. Jan. 23, 2012) The opinion indicates the following facts: BP supplied DLW with $200 of dope for resale. Before DLW could move…
Comments on the Golan v. Holder Supreme Court Ruling (Guest Blog Post)
By Tyler Ochoa In a decision that favored the 1% (copyright owners) over the 99% (consumers and the public domain), the U.S. Supreme Court recently held that neither the Patent and Copyright Clause of the U.S. Constitution nor the First…
Photobucket Qualifies for the 512(c) Safe Harbor (Again)–Wolk v. Kodak
By Eric Goldman Wolk v. Kodak Imaging Network, Inc., 2012 WL 11270 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 3, 2012). Prior blog post on this case. As I’ve indicated before, blogging 17 USC 512 cases has gotten tedious because they are just TOO LONG….