7Search Sues McAfee For Red Flagging It

By Eric Goldman 7Search.com v. McAfee, Inc., 1:2008cv04831 (N.D. Ill. complaint filed Aug. 25, 2008). The Justia page. I don’t have a good sense of how many lawsuits have been filed against anti-spyware vendors for classifying third party software as…

Court Slams Competitive Metatagging and Keyword Advertising–Soilworks v. Midwest Industrial Supply

By Eric Goldman Soilworks, LLC v. Midwest Indus. Supply, Inc., 2008 WL 3286975 (D. Ariz. Aug. 7, 2008) All too frequently, we get an opinion where the judge clearly didn’t grasp current implementations of keyword advertising and metatagging. Often, it’s…

Competitive Pop-up Ads Aren’t Unfair Competition or Tortious Interference–Overstock v. SmartBargains

By Eric Goldman Overstock.com, Inc. v. SmartBargains, Inc., 2008 UT 55 (Utah Sup. Ct. Aug. 19, 2008) In light of the death of adware and the fact that almost all of us have moved on, it is jarring to see…

State of the Net West 2008 Recap

By Eric Goldman Earlier this month, the High Tech Law Institute co-sponsored “State of the Net West,” an event designed to facilitate a conversation between DC policy makers and Silicon Valley technology folks. We had a terrific turnout (especially given…

Principal Loses Lawsuit Against Students and Parents Over Fake MySpace Page–Draker v. Schreiber

By Eric Goldman Draker v. Schreiber, 2008 WL 3457023 (Tex. App. Ct. Aug. 13, 2008). The majority opinion. The concurrence. John O. and I have previously blogged about teenagers creating fake web pages targeting someone at their school. See, e.g.,…

Fall 2008 Cyberspace Law Syllabus

By Eric Goldman I’ve posted my latest Cyberspace Law course syllabus. Some changes from last year: * added an August 2007 Search Engine Land article by Chris Silver Smith on geolocation technologies and their efficacy. * added California Penal Code…

Economics of Reputational Information Talk

By Eric Goldman I am nearing the end of my last major research project (the Brand Spillovers project–see [1] and [2]). I hope to post a near-final draft to SSRN in the next couple of months. Meanwhile, I’m now moving…

Google Denied Attorney’s Fees in 230 Dismissal–Steele v. Mengelkoch

By Eric Goldman Steele v. Mengelkoch, 2008 WL 2966529 (Minn..App. Ct. Aug. 5, 2008) A professor at Bemidji State University wrote a story saying some putatively unflattering things about a local journalist, who didn’t take kindly to the allegations and…

Minnesota Court Says Keyword Advertising is TM Use in Commerce–Hysitron v. MTS

By Eric Goldman Hysitron Inc. v. MTS Systems Corp., 2008 WL 3161969 (D. Minn. Aug. 1, 2008) In a brief and pedestrian opinion, another court outside the Second Circuit said that buying a trademarked keyword is “use in commerce” under…

Affiliate Liability Extravaganza

By Eric Goldman [Note: I recently published a version of this article at InformIT. Here’s the pre-edited version I sent them.] Introduction This article discusses marketers’ liability for the actions of their marketing affiliates (what I refer to as “affiliate…