November-December 2009 Quick Links, Part 2
By Eric Goldman Copyright * Want Ad Digest Inc. v. Display Advertising Inc. (N.D.N.Y. Sept. 3, 2009). A classified ads publisher wants to stop a competitor from republishing its classified ads. The court said that advertisers, not the publisher, generally…
November-December 2009 Quick Links, Part 1
By Eric Goldman Trademarks/Domain Names * Yahoo and Mary Kay settled Mary Kay’s trademark lawsuit over Yahoo’s email shortcuts. * uBID Inc. v. The GoDaddy Group Inc., No. 09-cv-2123 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 5, 2009). uBid’s anti-domain name parking lawsuit failed…
Ripoff Report Not Bound by Takedown Injunction Against User–Blockowicz v. Williams
By Eric Goldman Blockowicz v. Williams, 1:09-cv-03955 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 21, 2009) Last month, I wrote about the interaction between 47 USC 230 and FRCP 65. FRCP 65 says that anyone acting in concert with a litigant is obligated to…
Website Initially Denied 230 Dismissal But Gets It on Appeal–Shiamili v. Real Estate Group
By Eric Goldman Shiamili v. Real Estate Group of New York, Inc., 2009 WL 4842470 (N.Y. App. Div. Dec. 17, 2009) Unfortunately, I am only working from a short and opaque appellate memo. It appears that the defendant operated a…
Barnes v. Yahoo Survives Dismissal Motion on Remand
By Eric Goldman Barnes v. Yahoo!, Inc., 2009 WL 4823840 (D. Or. Dec. 11, 2009) You recall Barnes v. Yahoo, the case where Yahoo promised to promptly take down a fake profile created by a third party but didn’t do…
Another Cautionary Tale of Joint Website Ownership–TEG v. Phelps [UPDATED]
By Eric Goldman Third Education Group, Inc. v. Phelps, 675 F. Supp. 2d 916 (E.D. Wis. Nov. 25, 2009). Motion to amend denied January 19, 2010. [UPDATE: In the initial version of this post, Richard Phelps’ story was part of…
Denver University “Cyber Civil Rights” Symposium Recap
By Eric Goldman The week before Thanksgiving, I attended an unusual symposium sponsored by the University of Denver Law Review entitled “Cyber Civil Rights: New Challenges for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in our Networked Age.” The symposium covered standard…
Keyword Advertising Lawsuit Survives Motion to Dismiss on Genericness Grounds–FragranceNet v. Les Parfums
By Eric Goldman FragranceNet.com, Inc. v. Les Parfums, Inc., 2009 WL 4609268 (E.D.N.Y. Dec. 8, 2009) In 2007, FragranceNet suffered a stinging loss when it sued a competitor, FragranceX.com, for buying its trademarks as advertising keywords. Interpreting the 1-800 Contacts…
Record Label Sues Google and Microsoft for Linking to Infringing Music–Blues Destiny v. Google
By Eric Goldman Blues Destiny Records LLC v. Google, Inc., 3:09-cv-00538-WS-EMT (N.D. Fla. complaint filed Dec. 7, 2009) [warning: 1.5MB PDF] Blues Destiny Records, a small Blues music label, doesn’t like RapidShare, a website that allows users to publish files,…
Competitive Keyword Advertiser Wins at Trial–Fair Isaac v. Experian
By Eric Goldman Fair Isaac Corp. v. Experian Information Solutions Inc., 2009 WL 4263699 (D. Minn. Nov. 25, 2009) This is an interesting and complicated lawsuit that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. Fair Isaac produces the ubiquitous “FICO” credit…