Bad SEO Advice May Support Negligence Claim–D’Agostino v. Appliances Buy Phone
By Eric Goldman D’Agostino v. Appliances Buy Phone, Inc., 2011 WL 4345674 (D.N.J. Sept. 15, 2011). One iteration of the complaint. This is a confusing dispute, so I’m just going to focus on a few aspects. Based on the court’s…
Web Vendor Dispute Gets Ugly–Ground Zero Museum v. Wilson
By Eric Goldman Ground Zero Museum Workshop v. Wilson, 2011 WL 3758582 (D. Md. Aug. 24, 2011) Disputes like these make me wonder if we can’t find some way to get along. Suson runs a non-profit museum focused on the…
Request for Help: Doctor v. Patient Lawsuits Over Online Reviews
By Eric Goldman I’m doing some research, and I’m hoping you can help. I’m trying to comprehensively catalog doctor vs. patient lawsuits over online reviews of the doctor. I’m equally interested in suits by other health care professionals; I’ve noticed…
Ninth Circuit Upholds Web Host’s Liability for Counterfeiting Retailers–Louis Vuitton v. Akanoc
By Eric Goldman Louis Vuitton Malletier SA v. Akanoc Solutions, Inc., No. 10-15909 (9th Cir. Sept. 12, 2011). Prior blog posts: * Another Bad Ruling in Louis Vuitton v. Akanoc * Making Sense of the $32M Contributory Trademark Infringement Judgment…
Patent Conference Announcement, SCU, Oct. 14 (July-Aug. 2011 Quick Links, Part 3)
By Eric Goldman Over the past few months, we’ve seen some dramatic–and expensive–evidence that the patent system is out-of-control. Feeling outgunned in the smartphone space by big players with larger patent portfolios, Google has been on the prowl for bulk…
Blogger Can Display County Seal in Blog Posts–Rothamel v. Fluvanna County
By Eric Goldman Rothamel v. Fluvanna County, Va., 2011 WL 3878313 (W.D. Va. Sept. 2, 2011) I don’t use images on this blog, but many bloggers include images to help illustrate their posts. It’s not uncommon, then, for bloggers to…
Reflections on the DOJ-Google Half-Billion Deal over Illegal Pharma Ads (July-August 2011 Quick Links, Part 2)
By Eric Goldman I haven’t previously written on the DOJ’s bust of Google over illegal pharmaceutical ads, partially because I couldn’t reconcile my views about this enforcement action. From my vantage point, this action equally fits into two dichotomous stories,…
Resetting the Righthaven Fiasco (July-August 2011 Quick Links, Part 1)
By Eric Goldman The Righthaven empire is in tatters. It hasn’t expanded its inventory of cases for months (no new cases in July or August); its existing inventory of cases is shrinking for lack of standing and, increasingly, for lack…
Google Gets a Good Win in the MyTriggers Lawsuit
By Eric Goldman BFS Finance v. My Triggers Co., 09CV-14836 (Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Aug. 31, 2011) This lawsuit started all so innocently. It was just a routine collections matter against MyTriggers, an AdWords advertiser, for a few…
Pillow Pets Knockoff Enjoined from Keyword Advertising–CJ Products v Snuggly Plushez
By Eric Goldman CJ Products LLC v. Snuggly Plushez LLC, 2011 WL 3667750 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 22, 2011) Pillow Pets are cuddly and soft, but if you make knockoff versions of them, be prepared to meet the sharp end of their…